WE have a feast of Saturdays through the month of November and, watching the top-class racing last Saturday, two performances remained in the mind later in the evening, for vastly different reasons.

Altior earned the superlatives at Sandown but, an hour earlier, another popular jumps horse, Don Poli, was disappearing out the back of the television at Aintree, pulled up in the Becher Chase. It reminded one just how short a time we have with these jumpers who thrill us more than any flat horse. It seems a short time since Don Poli was being talked up as a Gold Cup winner.