IT has taken a while, but it’s time to start to come around to the realisation that Defi Du Seuil might actually be a two-miler.

True, J.P. McManus’ horse won the Scilly Isles Chase at Sandown last season over two and a half miles, and he won the JLT Chase at the Cheltenham Festival over the same trip. And connections resisted the temptation to drop back down to two miles for the Arkle instead after Le Richebourg’s defection, and despite the absence from the race of other high-profile, would-be contenders like Dynamite Dollars and Cilaos Emery.