IT was a grey day over jumps last Saturday, with Bristol De Mai and Vintage Clouds (timefigure of just 113) of that colour winning, as well as Activial (114) elsewhere on the Haydock card, and Caid Du Lin (a healthy 145 figure) and Politologue over at Ascot.

The last-named did well to beat an in-form Charbel in the Christy 1965 Chase by half a length conceding him 6lbs, but once more this was not a top-drawer effort in pure time terms.