ASCOT served up a pretty good hors d’oeuvre for the main festive course with a meeting on Friday and Saturday that contained a smattering of tasty performances.

Best of all was the win of Sam Spinner on Saturday in the Long Walk Hurdle, a well-run contest in which the five-year-old outstayed all of his rivals in a good time.

His timefigure comes out at 161, which is the best by a staying hurdler this season. Runner-up L’Ami Serge could not match his resolution but still recorded a highly respectable 158 timefigure, with Unowhatimeanharry and the staying-on The World’s End on 150.

Coney Island was shortened in the market for the Cheltenham Gold Cup after his win in a Graduation Chase earlier on the card, but this time the evidence of the stopwatch urges some caution.

Runner-up Adrien Du Pont went much too fast, with the result that the race sectional from three out was several seconds slower than for any other chase across the two days at 62.8s (92.8% finishing speed).

Coney Island’s timefigure of 146 was useful, rather than better, and below the 158 he recorded when splitting Our Duke and Disko at Leopardstown when last seen almost a year earlier. Connections are entitled to be happy with Coney Island’s return to action, but clockwatchers will be looking for more.

The runners also went too fast in the previous day’s Supreme Trial Novices’ Hurdle, which went to Claimantakinforgan but with a rather underwhelming timefigure of 131. I have the race finishing speed here at 94.2% of the average race speed, reflecting how much the earlier pace had taken its toll.

Although there were only three runners for the Mitie Noel Novices’ Chase, the pace was pretty honest, and Benatar ran one of the better novice chase times of the season so far, worth a 148 timefigure.

Finian’s Oscar was beaten just a short-head despite conceding 5lb and comes out even better on 153, though his jumping was unconvincing and might have found him out even more in a larger field. There is undoubtedly plenty of ability there, however.

Other notable winning efforts were posted by Divine Spear in a limited handicap chase on the Friday and by Gold Present in a listed handicap chase on the Saturday, well-run affairs resulting in timefigures of 146 and 153 respectively.

The valuable Racing Welfare Handicap Hurdle ended up a tactical affair – around 6.0s slower to three out than the novice the previous day – and Hunters Call’s timefigure of just 113 is around 20lbs below what a useful performer like him should be able to achieve.