IT is hard to remember a horse being so short for a Champion Hurdle having achieved so little in the same season but that’s what we have with Laurina, a general 4/1 shot after she made her belated seasonal debut at Sandown on Saturday.

She won of course, by a big margin, but achieved very little in doing so, facing off against just one other mare, rated 18lb her inferior. Indeed that mare, Sensulano, looked beaten after four hurdles and may well have been performing a fair bit below the 18lb-difference in ratings. Make no mistake about it, this was a highly glorified piece of work.