ARBRE De Vie (33, pace adjusted 36) picked up strongly in the closing stages to win a two and a half mile maiden hurdle at Fairyhouse by eight lengths. He was on schedule to earn a good but unremarkable rating until the obviously quite useful runner-up Catalaunian Fields forced him to be asked for more through the last half mile.

There were three jumps which Arbre De Vie dragged his back legs through but it was nothing serious. He would have got away with it over the fixed brush hurdles he jumped in France on his previous start, as the tops of the French jumps have a much longer brush than the EasyFix hurdles used in this race. No doubt he will know better next time.

That French race was the invariably red-hot Prix de l’Yonne, an Auteuil contest for hurdling debutantes that Sir Des Champs won a few years back. Arbre De Vie finished a close third, staying on strongly behind Aux Ptits Soins who is now with Paul Nicholls.

Long-term, Arbre De Vie is going to be a three-mile chaser as he’s a strong sort who has the build for that. Indeed he will surely stay longer than three miles. After all his sire was fifth in France’s longest flat race, the Prix du Cadran, and his dam is a half-sister to a horse who finished sixth in France’s second longest jumps race, the Grand Steeplechase de Paris.

Next season over fences he could well be a star.

Runner-up Catalaunian Fields (30, pace adjusted 33) is a tall, long striding chasing type who has already finished second in a point-to-point. He closed to get to within three lengths of the winner at the last after initially being beaten off. He slipped eight lengths back by the finish. However by then he’d pulled 30 lengths clear of the rest.

Normally I wouldn’t write up a horse that earned a rating lower than my cut-off point for pattern class of 36. However, Catalaunian Fields is a very lightly raced horse who has a lot of scope for potential over three miles, especially over fences.