IT is a moot point as to whether Altior would have beaten Charbel in the Arkle Chase had the latter not come down at the second-last when leading by nearly a length, though the way the long odds-on favourite drew away from his nearest pursuers on the run-in suggests that he would have.

Even so, it was not quite the authoritative performance from Altior that most people were expecting. The clock hints as to the reasons why.

Altior ran the race in an overall time that was 4.9s slower than recorded by Douvan in the same race (on slightly quicker ground) 12 months before, but was two to three lengths quicker from the home turn than that horse, a reflection of a strong earlier pace in 2016 and a fairly steady one this time round.

Closer inspection of sectionals shows that this year’s Arkle was around a dozen lengths slower than par from fence number six until those closing stages.

Altior was being asked to quicken off an unexacting pace - which he did do once Charbel was out of the way - and would therefore have had to be truly remarkable to win by the kind of margin some predicted for him.

The resulting timefigure for Altior is a relatively ordinary (for him) 154, as against the exceptional 170 figure he had posted in a much more truly-run race at Newbury. The placed horses in the Arkle, Cloudy Dream and Ordinary World, get figures of 146 and 134 respectively, which suggests they will have their work cut out to improve these placings in Grade 1 novice company.

MARES HURDLE

A similar scenario unfolded in the OLBG Mares’ Hurdle, which featured a one-two-three for the Irish-trained market leaders, though in the opposite order to that predicted by the betting.

The race was faster from three out, two out, and the last, than the Champion Hurdle had been at nearly half a mile shorter earlier on the card, but that was because the mares went much more steadily prior to that.

Front-running Apple’s Jade looked in trouble as the Ricci-owned pair Vroum Vroum Mag and Limini loomed up, but she rallied to prevail, albeit with a timefigure of just 136. All three mares can run into the 150s on their day, but Apple’s Jade looks just about the best of the trio, for all that she got a canny ride here.