THESE are still early days in the jumps season “proper”, though some novices in particular are starting to put up noteworthy performances against the clock.

As mentioned previously, the level of jumps ratings is higher than on the flat: roughly 35lb higher, in line with the differences in official ratings between the two codes. As a further guideline, the average figure for winners at the Cheltenham Festival in the last five years have been 160 for novice chasers and 154 for novice hurdlers.

In that context, it can be seen that Tiger Roll – a novice chaser, though already one with a lot of experience – put up a big performance in winning the Munster National Handicap Chase at Limerick recently with a timefigure of 148 (though there are suspicions that some of the course’s distances might benefit from remeasuring).

The Gordon Elliott-trained six-year-old seemed to benefit from the return to the longer trip of three miles and is versatile enough regarding conditions to think he will continue to be a force when true winter ground appears.

That was the top jumps timefigure of the week under review, but Virgilio (144) and Rock The Kasbah (141) were other winning novice chasers to record useful figures. The former followed up his Warwick win in May with an impressive victory at Newton Abbot over 150-rated hurdler Brother Tedd and 137-rated chaser Vintage Vinnie.

Rock The Kasbah achieved slightly less at Chepstow but was making his debut in what looks very much like a hot novice when beating Our Kaempfer and Theinval, both of them useful hurdlers and the latter already of a similar standard over fences.

However, the horse above all others to take from the race looks to be fourth-placed Clan Des Obeaux, a Paul Nicholls-trained gelding who had been sixth to Ivanovich Gorbatov in the Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham in March when last seen.

Clan Des Obeaux very much looks the part as a potential chaser and will be getting a hefty weight concession over fences as a four-year-old (at least until he starts getting penalised for winning) and could hardly have shaped much better than he did here. He should step up significantly on this 127 time performance in due course.

The other effort to pick out over jumps also came at Chepstow, where Ballyoptic took the Silver Trophy Handicap Hurdle with a 146 time performance. This was especially meritorious in view of the fact that the six-year-old is probably a stayer and yet this was a reduction in distance for him of over five furlongs.

Ballyoptic is unbeaten in four races over hurdles and deserves a crack at the big time, with Thistlecrack’s expected defection to the chasing ranks leaving room at the top among staying hurdlers.