THURSDAY at the Cheltenham Festival could not quite match the pyrotechnics of the first two days in time terms but there were still a couple of major winning performances. With the action having switched from the Old Course to the more stamina-testing New Course, the ground still appeared to be soft.

The best time of all came from Balko Des Flos, who surprised me in winning the Ryanair Chase and who did it smoothly, too. The runners were a few lengths behind par early but soon caught up after Un De Sceaux went to the front at the fifth and actually did plenty before a slightly slow finish.