RACING POST CHASE (Grade 1)

MIN’s flawless transition to fences continued apace in the Racing Post Novice Chase as this supremely talented gelding turned in a free-flowing tour de force that bodes well in his quest for further Grade 1 riches in the coming months.

A quality novice hurdler whose only defeat came when he was second in the Supreme Novices Hurdle last term, Min started off over fences with a commanding display at Navan last month.

This Grade 1 looked altogether tougher with the presence of Identity Thief making this a heavyweight clash between two potentially crack two-milers.

However, Identity Thief made quite a bad early mistake and pulled-up a couple of fences later with a suspected pelvic injury as the front-running Min cleared each fence with aplomb for Ruby Walsh.

After the 4/5 favourite cleared two out several of his rivals were still close enough to land a telling blow but once he was asked to lengthen away Min responded in style. He opened up a yawning gap nearing the last and, despite being quite long at that fence, he cleared it without any difficulty.

The Susannah Ricci-owned gelding then maintained an unfaltering tempo to the line to hand out a nine-length beating to Ordinary World, with Road To Respect a further half-length back in third. Identity Thief was reported to be lame behind after pulling up. “He’s probably looking like the horse everybody hoped he was going to be over hurdles last season,” said Mullins, whose charge is limbering up nicely for another Cheltenham showdown with old foe Altior.

“I’m very happy with that. He jumped from fence to fence and his jumping allowed him to put his rivals under pressure. Last season he just didn’t seem to respect his hurdles. He was too free and too fresh but fences are certainly helping him to settle and that, in turn, means that he has more left at the end of his races. At the start of the season I was hoping that he would be a better chaser than a hurdler and you’d have to think he looks Arkle material on what we have seen so far.”