THERE were some notable efforts away from the higher-profile jumps meetings, not least that of Charbel in the Scottish Trial Novices’ Hurdle at Musselburgh. The Kim Bailey-trained five-year-old made all under a big weight to win by 11 lengths and posted easily the best time of three races over the course and distance.

Charbel’s timefigure comes out at 149, and that makes him a legitimate Cheltenham contender, but it is worth noting that he was put in his place easily by 153-rated Yanworth at Ascot in December. Yanworth is now odds on in places for the Neptune Novices’ Hurdle.

Arkwrisht won a Grade 3 novice hurdle at Clonmel on February 4th, but his performance poses something of a head-scratcher to time analysts, as his timefigure comes out at a remarkably poor 79.

Closer inspection shows that the pace collapsed late on. While this race was the fastest of four hurdles early on the final circuit, it was slow from two out and slowest of all from the last.

Uneven distribution of energy can have this sort of effect on overall times, and the form – which does not look especially strong as it is – is best treated with caution.

By comparison, the overall time recorded by the Mullins’ newcomer Fire In Soul in Clonmel’s opening maiden hurdle was notably good – worth a 131 timefigure – and the well-related gelding was around 10 lengths quicker than Arkwrisht on what is a very short run-in.

Fire In Soul could well be going places on the back of this.