FOR a two-time Champion Hurdle winner who has been beaten only once over obstacles (and that at the Cheltenham Festival as a novice), Buveur d’Air has not generated quite the love that might be expected. But perhaps things will change: his victory in last Saturday’s BetVictor Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle suggests that may be so, anyway.

Despite there being only five runners, this looked like being a big ask for Buveur d’Air on what was his seasonal reappearance, especially as he had rather fallen in when beating Melon by just a neck on his most recent appearance, at Cheltenham in March.