THE universe corrected itself when Zabana won the Grade 1 Growise Chase at Punchestown on Tuesday.

Cheltenham was a write-off. The JLT start was a disaster. Very few people like those standing starts anyway, at best they are a lottery, who gets off and who doesn’t. For how long can they persevere with them? Races have been lost by prominent racers at those standing starts.

Zabana’s race was lost at the start at Cheltenham, that’s unequivocal. Davy Russell said afterwards that it was the connections who suffered, Andy Lynch and Chris Jones and their team, that Zabana was their big chance at Cheltenham, that he himself could go back into the weigh room, change his silks and get up on the next horse. (And he did, Mall Dini, and won the Pertemps Final.)

The owner and trainer had to have been gutted. Everything was right with the horse, Andy Lynch had him bouncing, and he was back at Cheltenham, where he had run the best race of his life over hurdles in the 2015 Coral Cup, back on his favoured good ground, a real shot at a Cheltenham Festival prize.

Worse than that, Zabana ran the race, he chased the other horses, riderless, until he caught up with them, then he raced among them, he led them, he jumped some of the fences, he went out on the second circuit with them, he completed the course, he actually won the race, he came home clear but riderless.

So he took a lot out of himself, he gave himself a hard race without having a race. He came home feeling sorry for himself, and in no way ready to get up for the Ryanair Gold Cup at Fairyhouse.

A couple of days after Cheltenham, Davy Russell was circumspect. It could all be for luck, he said. And it was.

Lynch had Zabana zinging again on Tuesday. A slight stumble at the first fence must have had hearts in mouths again but, after that, Zabana was smooth as silk. He was quickly back in front and into a lovely rhythm for Russell, he jumped every jump and he stayed on well to repel the high-class Outlander.

It’s a Grade 1 prize in the bag and it means that the sky is the limit. Zabana is only seven, that was just his fourth chase and we know now that he stays three miles well. All things being equal, you never know how high he could go next season.