LAST Saturday’s meeting at Cheltenham was unashamedly billed in part as a trial for the big occasion back there in March, but it also packed plenty of clout on its own terms.

All of the seven winners recorded timefigures in excess of 130 by my reckoning, with a couple bordering on high class.

In order to come up with workable timefigures, it is necessary to make some allowance for the effect of rain during proceedings, which is easier said than done when you were far away at the time and return to no official description of the weather during the event.

A request for information on Twitter resulted in several responses and as many different versions of the truth!

It seems safe, however, to deduce that conditions were slower at the end of the card than at the beginning, if not greatly so, and that the biggest alterations came around the middle of the seven races.

That would explain why some have Frodon’s time in winning the BetBright Trial Cotswold Chase as relatively modest, whereas I have it near to his 165 best on 161.

SUPERB JUMPING

It was a display characterised once again by superb jumping and by plenty of guts, which were needed as Elegant Escape (158 timefigure) and Terrefort (155) closed late on.

Those virtues will stand Frodon in good stead if, as seems likely, he tackles the Cheltenham Gold Cup in under seven weeks’ time, but there remains a slight doubt about his stamina if that race turns into the kind of drawn-out battle it did last year.

Then again, significant rail movements here meant that this was run at a distance just 83 yards short of that advertised for the big one, while the ground was a fair bit softer than good.

Nonetheless, Frodon’s time was at least 10 lengths slower from three out than in the preceding two races and around five lengths slower up the run-in.

It looked a case of him beginning to come to the end of his tether late on, but he is simply not one to quit.

My suspicion is that he will come up a bit short in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, while ensuring others know they have been in a scrap.

Elegant Escape, who was outpaced at a crucial stage, gives the impression he has an even bigger effort in him when stamina is more at a premium.