KALASHNIKOV put up a big performance on Saturday at Newbury to win the Betfair Hurdle.

Not that novices don’t do well in the race, the most valuable handicap hurdle run in Britain. On the contrary, they do very well. They are the unexposed horses, the ones who have the potential to be ahead of the handicapper, and last year two novices, Ballyandy and Movewiththetimes, finished first and second.

But this year’s race was a thorough test, run, as it was, on heavy ground and at an unforgiving gallop.

It was all too much for the majority of the young, unexposed horses. Lalor finished 13th, Jenkins finished 16th, Waterlord was pulled up, Divin Bere was pulled up, Irish Roe was pulled up.

Historically, it is a race in which five-year-olds do well. There had been six five-year-old winners of the race in the previous 11 renewals. Now there have been seven in the last 12.

However, the next best five-year-old finisher after Kalashnikov on Saturday was Zalvados, who finished seventh. There were seven five-year-olds in the 24-runner race, and only two of them finished better than 14th.

As well as that, Zalvados had the minimum weight of 10st on his back. Kalashnikov carried 11st 5lb. That was a fair burden in such a high-class handicap for such an inexperienced horse

He had to dig deep too. Jack Quinlan started to squeeze him along going around the home turn, and it is a long way from the top of the home straight to the winning line at Newbury on heavy ground, especially if they have gone as hard as they did go on Saturday from early.

He got in tight to the second last flight, and it appeared as if Bleu Et Rouge was travelling better, having crept his way there, Barry Geraghty unanimated in the J.P. McManus hoops. But Amy Murphy’s horse found enough on the run-in to withstand Willie Mullins’ horse’s gallant effort, with the pair of them coming nicely clear.

LEARNED TRADE

It was some training performance by Amy Murphy, fresh-faced and sparkling in the Newbury gloom; a 25-year-old trainer who learned her trade with Gai Waterhouse and Luca Cumani and Tom Dascombe and who is now plying her own; a National Hunt (and flat) trainer based in Newmarket.

Looking to the (immediate) future, specifically to the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, which appears to be next up: Kalashnikov was winning Saturday’s race off a mark of 141, and the handicapper raised him by 13lbs to a mark of 154.

There is precedent. When Ballyandy won the Betfair Hurdle last year, he won it off a mark of 135, was raised to a mark of 147 and finished fourth behind Labaik in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.

When Get Me Out Of Here won the Betfair Hurdle (the Totesport Hurdle as it was then) as a novice in 2010, he won it off a mark of 135. He was raised to a mark of 150 and was beaten a head by Menorah in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.

On that evidence, a mark of 154 is well into Supreme Novices’ Hurdle territory.

That said, when My Tent Or Yours won the Betfair Hurdle as a novice in 2012, he won it off a mark of 149, was raised to a mark of 162 and still only finished second behind Champagne Fever in a red-hot Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.

We can only (educatedly) guess at how good this year’s Supreme Novices’ Hurdle is going to turn out to be, but there is no doubt that Kalashnikov deserves his place in it.