I’M not sure whose in charge of the Christmas lights in Exeter, but they won’t do a better job of dazzling the locals than Greaneteen (Paul Nicholls/Harry Cobden) did on Friday, with the 2020 hero putting up a scintillating show of front-running and bold jumping which saw him beat stablemate Dolos (Lorcan Williams) by seven lengths, with Arkle fourth War Lord twice that distance back in third.

Nicholls warned that Greaneteen faced a difficult task conceding more than a stone to all his rivals, but said he was fitter than when fourth in the race 12 months ago.

It soon became clear that fitness would not be an issue with Cobden immediately grabbing the lead as the tapes lifted, and Cobden increased the pace after passing the stands, kicking Greaneteen (7/2) into his fences to stretch his rivals, and that tactic paid dividends.

Pursuit

Given a breather before the long turn for home, Greaneteen appeared vulnerable briefly, but War Lord showed signs that the pursuit was stretching him, and when Third Time Lucki made a bad error at the first fence in the straight, the top-weight only had Dolos to worry about. Greaneteen pinged every fence in the straight, stretching his lead all the time, and although Dolos kept trying, he was undone by the gulf in class.

The Tingle Creek, which Greaneteen won last year, is his next port of call, and while it’s taken time for him to be accepted as a top-class performer over fences, that is hard to argue after another excellent performance here.

He’s already got three Grade 1 victories to his name in open company, and he looks sure to add to that.

Debut win

The Haldon Gold Cup win of Greaneteen was the third leg of a treble for Nicholls and Cobden on the card, while Philip Hobbs had a double, including the chase debut win over three-mile of Thyme Hill (Tom O’Brien), who jumped safely but for putting down at the last when his rider wanted a big one.

He travelled very well and will do better with more competition, while a drop in trip over fences shouldn’t bother him given his cruising speed.