WHAT a treat we were served up at Down Royal for the delayed Ladbrokes Champion Chase, and victory went to Robcour’s Gerri Colombe (Saddler Maker). One-nil to the French as we witnessed the first Grade 1 race of the new National Hunt season, and the winner is a horse who could yet scale unimaginable heights.

After all, just a short head is what stands between him and an unblemished race record, and that came about when he was runner-up to The Real Whacker at the Cheltenham Festival in the Grade 1 Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase. Apart from that, Gerri Colombe won his point-to-point, both his bumpers, two hurdle races and five chases, and the manner of his race programme clearly shows that Gordon Elliott always saw him as a chaser.