UN De Sceaux (40) set a scorching early pace and simply coasted home to take a two mile beginners’ chase at Fairyhouse. He charged off in his usual gung-ho fashion and made his only error when over-jumping the first and landing too steeply, risking unseating his rider. Thereafter he went clear and was never in danger.

From three out, the early pace told and Un De Sceaux came home from there in 62.35 seconds compared with the 58.67 seconds they managed in the next race over a mile longer. However he’d run his rivals ragged and only had to fend off an eventually impotent challenge from a runner-up who could never get on terms or even put his rival under pressure.

Un De Sceaux has now won all his 10 completed starts and is clearly an exceptional talent. The only horse to give him a serious race so far has been dual French Champion Hurdle winner Gemix.

The main thing to bear in mind with Un De Sceaux is that his habitual kamikaze style of front running at a breakneck pace ensures he takes a lot out of himself in a race. Horses like this are invariably at their best on their first two starts of the season and with a break of at least five weeks thereafter.

To date trainer Willie Mullins has not risked running Un De Sceaux when he hasn’t been fresh in this way. However he is now apparently mulling over the idea of running him again on January 4th. That would be his third run this season without a break.

However he did tip up three out on his seasonal debut, so he didn’t use up all his available energy that time. It’s therefore quite possible that he will still be fresh enough next time out. I’d put the chances at 50-50.

The thing is that Willie Mullins is fully aware of the Un De Sceaux’s need to be fresh, so it’s unlikely he’d run him back again in early January if he wasn’t sure he’d recovered from doing blood tests and other checks.

That said, logically Mullins should delay Un De Sceaux’s next start until late January so that he has a five week plus break between this run and his final race before the Arkle. That’s what I’d do, even though it means the horse will only have one more start before Cheltenham.