RUBAUD may have made hard work of it, but he was tough the way he won the Pendil Novices’ Chase at Kempton last Saturday, writes Page Fuller.

He has had a tricky start over fences so far, all in Grade 2 company. He fell when tiring behind Sir Gino at Kempton at Christmas, and then found the slick jumping of L’Eau du Sud too much to lay up with in the Kingmaker next time.

It was Rubaud’s best round of jumping so far over fences, scoring 8.2 out of 10 on the Jump Index, but L’Eau du Sud still gained an advantage of over three lengths through jumping alone on Rubaud.

At Kempton on Saturday, he jumped the worst we’ve seen so far over fences. Whether he remembered his fall at Christmas, or just hated the rain-softened ground, he ballooned his fences losing -4.61mph on average over his fences.

This only scored 6.3 out of 10, and it was clear how much it was hindering his momentum. He did well to win, considering he forfeited over five lengths to the second horse and seven lengths to the third horse through jumping.

He was also one of the first horses that came off the bridle, but he still managed to quicken up into the home straight, hitting his Top Speed of 32mph just before they approached the third last fence. Which was reassuring, given it was his first try over two miles four furlongs.

He skips Cheltenham and goes straight to Aintree now, but if the sun shines and he gets his favoured going, he will be dangerous to oppose in the Manifesto Novices’ Chase.

He will have gained confidence in his jumping from his experience on Saturday, and consider how far he would have won by, if the ground had been in his favour and he’d jumped better.