I FIND myself wishing I had paid more heed to my own advice, following a Ladbrokes Trophy at Newbury which went by wide margins to Sizing Tennessee.

The 20th October edition of this column observed that the gelding’s 158 timefigure at lowly Fontwell – the best by a jumper in Ireland and Britain to that point – “may well not get the credit it deserves”. Well, a repeat of that 158 was good enough to land the prestigious big prize, formerly known as the Hennessy Gold Cup, and some.

It is not quite clear where the improvement has come from with Sizing Tennessee, a novice last season, but one who won only once and who will be an 11-year-old shortly. But come it has, and he now has a crushing style of galloping fast and keeping going that clearly identifies him as a very smart operator.

This year’s Ladbrokes Trophy took no prisoners from the outset, with the leaders about 15 lengths ahead of par for the conditions by halfway. Bit by bit, all of Sizing Tennessee’s rivals dropped away, but he powered on.

Nonetheless, the time from three out was one of the slowest this century in absolute terms and the slowest in terms of finishing speed compared to average race speed since 1999 at 95.8%.

Sizing Tennessee’s time from that obstacle (just over three furlongs from home) was 10 lengths slower than par given the overall time, so you can imagine just how fatigued most of his rivals must have been.

Best of those rivals was Elegant Escape, who emerged with his reputation enhanced if anything in conceding the red-hot winner 7lbs and being beaten by 10 lengths, recording a 155 timefigure in the process. Thomas Patrick, who had given Elegant Escape a big scare in a fast-time race at Sandown the previous month, and who carried my money, chose this occasion to run his first bad race over fences.

Sizing Tennessee has a further step to make to be regarded as a legitimate Cheltenham Gold Cup candidate, but it is not a massive leap, with a figure in the high-160s sometimes good enough to capture chasing’s blue riband.