IF Galopin Des Champs had stood up at the final fence at Cheltenham, he would have won by 25 lengths in my estimation and that would put him just 5lb below the career-best effort put up by Allaho in the Ryanair Chase an hour later.

The closing stages of the Turners Novices’ Chase left the Cheltenham crowd gasping as Galopin Des Champs (170?) slithered to the floor having looked to have cleared the final fence with aplomb on the way to confirming himself the leading novice chaser of his year.