I FIND myself wishing I had paid more heed to my own advice, following a Ladbrokes Trophy at Newbury which went by wide margins to Sizing Tennessee.

The 20th October edition of this column observed that the gelding’s 158 timefigure at lowly Fontwell – the best by a jumper in Ireland and Britain to that point – “may well not get the credit it deserves”. Well, a repeat of that 158 was good enough to land the prestigious big prize, formerly known as the Hennessy Gold Cup, and some.