PLENTY of impetus was brought to the juvenile hurdling division over the Festive period, starting with a notably strongly run Knight Frank Juvenile Hurdle at Leopardstown on St Stephen’s Day.

Bapaume ran his race significantly quicker overall than Bunk Off Early in the opening maiden hurdle or Aeglos in the closing bumper (in which there were no obstacles, of course) but was slower in the closing stages than that pair.

There is every reason to think that Bapaume put up a useful effort, if not better, as reflected by his timefigure of 139. But he beat Landofhopeandglory and Mega Fortune by less than two lengths, despite receiving 3lb from the former, and it remains up for grabs as to which of the trio will prove to be the best.

Landofhopeandglory’s 140 timefigure promoted him to marginal leader of the pack, but he was joined in that position 24 hours later by Defi Du Seuil, who retained his unbeaten record over timber in the Finale Juvenile Hurdle at Chepstow.

The Finale was an even stronger affair than the Leopardstown race had been when finishing speed percentages are compared with course pars, and that led to some rather exaggerated margins. All the same, it was still some achievement for Defi Du Seuil to beat the Aintree listed winner Evening Hush by 13 lengths when conceding her 7lb, especially as his jumping was sloppy in the closing stages.

EASY SUCCESS

Charli Parcs followed up a win at Enghien with an easy success at Kempton, in what was comfortably the quickest hurdles time on the card. His 136 timefigure places him just outside the top five juvenile hurdlers on time, but it seems highly likely that there is more to come from the Nicky Henderson recruit.

Less impressive on the clock was Meri Devie, the heavily-backed winner of the opener on Leopardstown’s second day. Her overall time was not only slower than that of Saturnas (who could well be a good performer) but also that of the ordinary handicapper That’s A Wrap.

Both Meri Devie and runner-up Housesofparliament get mere 100 timefigures for this, but both can be expected to run quite a bit faster another day.