THE ground was soft, heavy in places, at Cheltenham on Saturday and, on soft ground that is heavy in places – changing to heavy all over after the first race – the best of the ground on Cheltenham’s Old Course is usually wide on the track. This phenomenon is usually more pronounced on the hurdles course than it is on the chase course, probably because the hurdles track on the Old Course goes outside the chase track, widest of all and under the trees on the run down the back straight.

In the four-year-olds’ hurdle, two of the seven runners raced towards the inside from flagfall, and they finished second last and last. They were both big prices, admittedly, so their respective finishing positions may not have been down solely to track position.