LAST Saturday’s Trials Day at Cheltenham had the feeling of a great game of Monopoly.

Half the players have already gone straight to Festival. The rest threw the dice again last week.

It was Trials day. That’s great. A series of races to clear the chaff, clarify things. Roll that dice.

But wait a minute, we had three favourites well beaten. Editeur Du Gite 14/1, Ahoy Senor 13/2, Gold Tweet 14/1 first past the post.

Those landing on a ‘Cotswold Chase’ square might have got the ‘go to jail’ card because the general opinion afterwards seemed to be was that there was no Gold Cup winner here. And that was even with connections of the first four home all reasserting that they were on target for a Gold Cup bid.

The Gold Cup now seems to be made up of a group of solid stayers but who don’t really jump well. And a second group of classy, smooth jumping horses (Galopin and Bravemansgame) who all have stamina doubts. You takes your choices and today’s Leopardstown feature will be a big clue.

And where fits the reigning champion A Plus Tard? One sole pulled-up run since his comprehensive victory last March.

Also add in that the going on the final day is often more unpredictable than the opening day – that could have a huge bearing on the result.

One thing is sure, one wouldn’t have expected, at the end of last season, the 50/1 Grand National winner to be second favourite in the betting while the 2022 Gold Cup winner is sitting behind him.

And there has been a bookmaker over reaction to Protektorat, for all that I don’t see him as the Gold Cup winner. He is now 16/1 and, on his best form, well worth an each-way wager.

But Noble Yeats is the enigma. He beat Ahoy Senor, who I still don’t think jumps well enough, and Sounds Russian by three and a half lengths and one length in the Many Clouds at Aintree, giving Ahoy 1lb and showing a lot of speed in the last furlongs. Last Saturday, he struggled to keep up on the final bend at Cheltenham and eventually stayed on to be two and a half behind Ahoy Senor, giving him 3lb and without his cheekpieces. It puts him in the mix with suggestions that Saturday was just the ‘Trial’ that it was supposed to be.

For the Champion Chase, I’d still be much happier with Edwardstone than Energumene. The ride by Tom Cannon came in for some criticism, giving his horse too much to do against a leader who had been perhaps underestimated and on a day where frontrunners seemed to have the upper hand. Edwardstone had a faster closing sectional time than the winner.

However, he will surely not make that mistake again, and if Energueme is ridden more prominently as suggested, it will help set it up even more for the Alan King horse. Again, the weekend’s Grade 1 will help fit Blue Lord into his correct place in the mix.