FINIAN’S OSCAR, one of last season’s leading novice hurdlers, made his debut over fences at Chepstow last Saturday in a listed novice chase and landed the odds easily by 11 lengths. So far, so good, though there were elements of his performance that were less taking than those facts convey.

Finian’s Oscar was not foot-perfect early on and was left with little to beat once 155-rated Alcala slipped up on the home turn. His overall time was mediocre – about 7.0s slower than Romain De Senam on near-identical ground 24 hours later – and worth a timefigure of just 118, though sectionals show that all of that, and more besides, was lost in the home straight, by which point Finian’s Oscar was coasting.