THE fact that the course executive at Chepstow has no intention of moving the date of the Coral Welsh Grand National permanently from the day after Boxing Day to the first Saturday in the New Year is a shame, if understandable in terms of racecourse attendances, for this year’s postponed running brightened an otherwise somewhat drab jumps weekend.

The 10-day delay did not lead to a decline in competitiveness – 20 again faced the starter – though this year’s race was not quite of the standard of those won by Synchronised in 2010 or Native River in 2016.

What this year’s race most certainly was, however, was strongly-run. Indeed, the leaders overdid it, with the result that they were sitting ducks for one coming from further back. Those leaders got to halfway around 30 lengths quicker than they had done the previous year after adjustment has been made for conditions.

This year’s winner, Raz De Maree, had been under pressure in rear from an early stage but swept through to lead two out and drew on to win by six lengths.

Runner-up Alfie Spinner deserves plenty of credit for being in the firing line from a long way out and sticking to his task. Only seven completed in a gruelling affair.

Raz De Maree gets a 142 timefigure, which is pretty good for a horse of his ability, while Alfie Spinner (who carried 8lb less) gets a 129 which he could build upon if these exertions have not left their mark.

All told, though, the form is probably best treated with some caution given the extreme circumstances under which it took place.

The ground was similarly testing on the hurdles course as the chase at Chepstow, but the pace profile was greatly different for the highlight there over the smaller obstacles, the Finale Juvenile Hurdle.

It was run at a steady pace, with a much faster finish than for the other two hurdle races on the card. As a result, We Have A Dream gets a timefigure of just 129 for seeing off the 145-rated Sussex Ranger (127 here) by a length and a half.

We Have A Dream looked best in this throughout, but supporters of the runner-up are entitled to wonder why more use was not made of him given the way he was ridden for his Sandown win, in which he clocked both a fast time and some seriously impressive sectionals.

Either way, these two look about as good a pair of juveniles as has been seen so far, even though that has yet to be reflected in the timefigures in We Have A Dream’s case.