JANADIL (150+) made his belated seasonal debut at Gowran Park on Saturday when winning the Grade 2 Red Mills Chase, setting himself up nicely for a clash with Shishkin in the Ryanair Chase.

All three chases on the day were run over the two-and-a-half mile distance, with From The Ashes surprisingly eclipsing the time taken by the Grade 2 winner as he landed his first race over fences.

However, the final circuit and moreover the closing sectionals paint a completely different picture as last season’s Ryanair second was significantly quicker.

Ridden cold by Rachael Blackmore, the nine-year-old only moved out of last place as he crossed the third last fence, before taking the measure of stable companion and favourite Haut En Couleurs (141) even before he stumbled at the final fence.

The impressive aspect of the performance on the clock was the closing sectional of 76.4secs from the fourth last fence, which was 7.2secs and 9.2secs quicker than Grandero Bello (126) and From The Ashes (139) respectively with the rapid finish also accounting for the majority of the final circuit time difference.

Treat with caution

The Grade 3 Hurdle on the card saw Fil Dor (120+) make a successful return to hurdles after trailing in a distance behind El Fabiolo at the Dublin Racing Festival. However, as the time figure suggests, the form of the race needs to be treated with caution when assessing future graded contests.

Admittedly, the closing sectionals were the best on the card as Gordon Elliott’s five-year-old posted a closing split of 60.5secs from the third last hurdle, although it was still not sufficiently quick enough to confirm any notable difference over the final circuit.

In comparison Sinbad Le Marin (124) stopped the clock for his sectional at 63.4secs and Ottoman Style (110+) 63.3secs as they trailed the Caldwell Construction-owned gelding by just 0.1secs and 1.8secs respectively on the final lap of the Co Kilkenny track.