THE calm before the storm. Last weekend’s jumps action in Ireland and Britain had a definite feeling that something bigger – much bigger – was just around the corner. A Grade 2, a Grade 3, and a couple of listed races were the best there was to go at.

That Grade 2 – a novices’ hurdle at Kelso – was weakened further by the under-performance of the odds-on favourite Getaway Trump, but it would be wrong to imagine that Rouge Vif achieved little in winning.

His time stacks up pretty well and is at least the equal of what he achieved when runner-up to Mister Fisher at Kempton on St Stephen’s Day: worth a 140 timefigure by my reckoning.

USEFUL

That would not be good enough to get him in the places at the Cheltenham Festival, but it is useful in its own right. The placed horses, Windsor Avenue and Elvis Mail, get 135 timefigures at the same time.

The Grade 3 was the Flyingbolt Novice Chase at Navan, where Jetz returned to the level of his Drinmore third to Delta Work and Le Richebourg with a 145-rated defeat of Benruben and two others. Again, that probably wouldn’t be good enough to place at Cheltenham, but not everything is about the festival.

Benruben confirmed his 135 figure from a narrow defeat by Ex Patriot (136) in the process and surely won’t remain a maiden over jumps for much longer.

The listed races were at Kelso, where Blue Flight might have caught Black Corton on a rare off-day in winning the Premier Chase with a 133 timefigure, and Doncaster.

By my reckoning, Papagana achieved more than she had previously in winning the mares’ novices’ hurdle on the latter course, at a trip that had seemed very likely to suit her, and a 132 timefigure certainly suggests so.