Foildubh’s jockey chose to press Un De Sceaux which prompted Willie Mullins’ charge to accelerate and cover the distance from the third jump to the last a monstrous 7.9 seconds faster than they went in the earlier maiden hurdle on the same card. Foildubh had been burned off long before then but Un De Sceaux kept on charging to score by 53 lengths.

It is tempting to speculate on how fast Un De Sceaux might have run if Ruby Walsh hadn’t allowed him to coast up the run-in.

If he’d run as fast on the run-in as they went in the maiden hurdle instead of 2.1 seconds slower, he’d have earned a rating of 44 from me. That would make him the best hurdler of the season. The thing is Un De Sceaux is one of those horses that doesn’t need a jockey to push him, so I’m going to be cautious about saying he can run faster.

One problem with horses that push themselves as hard as Un De Sceaux does is they usually need to be kept fresh to produce their best. This generally means they produce their top form on their first two starts of the season and need breaks of at least five weeks to run well thereafter.

So far Un De Sceaux hasn’t run against this pattern. However, the experiment has to be tried at some point and it apparently will be as Un De Sceaux is due to return in a shade under five weeks for his third run of the season in the Red Mills Trial Hurdle at Gowran Park.

It’s likely Un De Sceaux will ‘bounce’ to defeat at Gowran Park and need resting. But if he can show his best there, it will open up possibilities for him and enable his connections to plan more ambitious future campaigns.