A NEW year brought some tricky conditions under which to assess performances by time. When it rains persistently, but not necessarily consistently, as happened at Cheltenham on New Year’s Day, it can be quite a job to establish which times are genuinely slow and which are simply down to deteriorating conditions.

This is another area in which sectionals can assist, for sectionals represent the proportion of the overall time of a race that was spent in each section, and that proportion should not change by much even when conditions mean that the overall times do.

What those sectionals tell us is that a number of the races at Cheltenham were run at a pace that was too fast for the softening conditions, with plodding finishes and overall times which suffered accordingly.

That applied in particular to the races won by Coo Star Sivola (timefigure of just 63, but large sectional mark-up for going too fast early), Agrapart (147) and Cap Soleil (107), and to a lesser degree to those won by Shantou Flyer (153) and Cogry (130).

The exaggerated waiting tactics employed on L’Ami Serge in the Relkeel Hurdle were justified in the circumstances, but jockey Daryl Jacob still could not quite conserve the gelding’s stamina for an extended two and a half miles and he was beaten a head by the resolute Agrapart.

That timefigure of 147 for the winner is some way off Stayers’ Hurdle standard, but Agrapart should be able to better it another day.

Meanwhile, it would be best to excuse that race’s former winner Cole Harden for his third place here, as he was the one who did the donkey work on ground possibly softer than was ideal for him.

Shantou Flyer benefited from a patient ride in his race, and extra credit should go to the front-running second Village Vic (159 timefigure), who could easily shake up some of the big boys at level weights at around two and a half miles judged on his carrying of large imposts in handicaps.

The estimation of the race-by-race deterioration in conditions means that Whisper, who won the Betbright Dipper Novices’ Chase 35 minutes earlier, is credited with a 147 timefigure despite carrying more weight and running the course in a slightly quicker time.

Whisper’s chase debut win looks even better after Baron Alco, who he beat that day, ran a 148 time at Plumpton on the second day of 2017.