THERE was more than one case of déjà vu at Cheltenham on Saturday as Editeur Du Gite (150) supplemented his November meeting victory before Coole Cody (156) and Midnight Shadow (155) led their field turning for home in the day’s big handicap as the new course at Prestbury Park once again favoured front-runners.

The outcome of the handicap is where things changed as Coole Cody jumped the second last fence cleanly and stayed on strongly to provide his connections with compensation for last month’s luckless fall.

When measured by the stopwatch, both performances stand up to the closest scrutiny with the winners likely to prove big players in their chosen handicap at the Festival in March.

The honour for fastest overall race time when adjusted for distance went the way of Coole Cody as the influence of Siruh Du Lac in the formative stages of the Racing Post Chase made it a stern test at the distance.

The Evan Williams-trained gelding deserves further credibility as he still found the reserves to close off faster than Gary Moore’s in-form two-mile chaser.

Joining the two races together from the fence before the joining of the racecourse proper shows Editeur Du Gite to be the quickest early as he reached the first in the back straight 3.7 seconds ahead of the Racing Post Chase field, which was led by its winner.

The gap grew marginally to 3.9 seconds ahead at the top of the hill. However, Evan Williams’s gelding was quicker through the closing stages as he extended running down the hill to complete the closing section in 77.5 seconds compared to Editeur De Gite who covered the same ground in 78.5 seconds.

Adam Wedge also conjured another effort from his mount after the last fence to extend the distance between himself and Midnight Shadow and win going away.

Faster

Zanza (155) benefitted from the stiffer finish of the new course to grab second on the line and his closing effort was faster than the winner as he stopped the clock at 76.7 seconds.

The seven-year-old is in tremendous form at present and looks to have acclimatised to the undulations of Cheltenham although I would reiterate his best form has been achieved on the flatter terrains of Newbury or Aintree.

Career best

by progressive Dreams

GUARD Your Dreams (154) added another Cheltenham winners’ medal to his collection with a hard-fought victory in the meeting’s feature race, the International Hurdle.

The time-figure achieved by Nigel Twiston-Davies’ gelding was a career best as under a power-packed Sam Twiston-Davies, the five-year-old reversed form with Song For Someone (154) who I have running to the same figure as Ascot.This was also a career best for Hunters Call (152), however the closing sectionals were the slowest of the closing hurdle races illustrating the performances were more about stamina than speed.

The fastest closing sectional over hurdles was clocked by Blazing Khal (140) who covered the ground from the third last hurdle in 101.8 seconds compared to Martello Sky (120) 102.7 and Guard Your Dreams 103.5 although in a shortened race from the last hurdle with a circuit to run Guard Your Dreams was around 12 lengths superior to Charles Byrnes’s dual Cheltenham winner and 35 lengths faster than Martello Sky.

Looking to the future I cannot see Guard Your Dreams cutting much ice in the Champion Hurdle if taking his chance, with the Aintree Hurdle over two and a half miles appearing a more realistic target.

As for Blazing Khal, he does not lack for speed, which was an asset the way this race developed, however I would rather see him finish to the same effect off a stronger gallop before committing to his chances of winning the three-mile novice hurdle at the Festival in March.