IT would be wrong to describe Bristol De Mai as a one-course specialist, given that he has won and run well at places like Wetherby, Sandown and Cheltenham also, but he has been beaten only once in six starts over fences at Haydock now and made it three Betfair Chases to his name there on Saturday.

His only defeat at the Merseyside racecourse came narrowly at the hands of Lostintranslation in the 2019 Betfair Chase, and that old rival proved nowhere near as effective this time on ground that started on “soft” but was clearly “heavy” before the end of the card.