I have seen the Kauto Star scarves and the Denman buttons, the window dressing stuff, but where is the substance, the meat and drink ‘marketing’ campaign, such as it would be? Where was the competition to name The Decider, the efforts to bring in the non-committed, the fan clubs, the advertising, the PR drive, the rolling out of the personalities involved, equine and human, Walsh v McCoy, Findlay and Barber v Smith, The Tank v The Whatever Nickname The Public Would Have Given Kauto If They Had Been Asked?

In fact, the best efforts to promote The Match have, quite ironically, been made by Betfair, with the Clive Smith and Harry Findlay television advertisement conversations. That’s good stuff, but the objective of the ad campaign is to promote Betfair. Was it left up to Betfair to do the marketing job on this hugely anticipated (or at least hugely anticipated within racing and among racing fans, the already committed) race? Betfair’s job is to promote Betfair, they are a commercial organisation, and any benefit that the race or that Racing Inc gains from it is surely purely bytheway. Understandably so as well.

Wasn’t there supposed to be a marketing drive? When the question was tentatively asked in January, when it was getting a little late, a little close to Gold Cup day, when no real evidence of any mass communication message about what was going to be the horse race of a generation appeared to be forthcoming: why haven’t we heard much about the Kauto/Denman match, weren’t we told that, as soon as Denman had run his prep race in the Aon Chase at Newbury, the marketing drive would begin? Surely the result of the Aon did not result in the scrapping of all the marketing plans and the marketing strategy and budget that had been undoubtedly so painstakingly formulated, did it?

Like I say, I may have missed it, I may not have been reading or watching the media on which a significant budget has been spent promoting this match, I may not have seen the magazines in which the competitions ran, I may not have been watching the television or listening to the radio at the times when the advertisements were broadcast. Because I am certain that every possible effort was made to promote this race, to strive to have kids proclaiming their support for either Kauto or Denman, we’re going to hammer you on 19th March, can we play you every week, your AP wouldn’t lace our Ruby’s boots, that kind of thing, to have housewives choosing allegiances, grown men, sports fans, not racing fans, beginning to care. There is no way that Racing Inc, and the people who are paid and charged with the task of promoting racing, bringing racing to the people and the people to racing, increasing racing’s interest-base and endeavouring to ensure that it survives and thrives into the future, would have missed or fully exploited an opportunity this big. Because an opportunity like this will probably never present itself again before the next solar eclipse.

No way.

* For more of Donn’s thoughts, visit www.donnmcclean.com.

I dreamt that two girls fought out the finish of the National Hunt Chase (it couldn’t happen in reality, could it?), and that the gloss was taken off what was the finish of the week so far by the imposition of bans for excessive use of the whip, or whatever they call it these days, and that the ban rules one of them out of Aintree but not the other one. I dreamt that people who had no involvement, and no more than a peripheral interest, in racing were looking on and scratching their heads at the bizarreness of it all, certain that they could never get involved in a sport that had rules they couldn’t begin to understand.

I dreamt that the five-year-old favourite in the RSA Chase did what five-year-olds are apt to do in the RSA Chase when they are getting just 1lb from their elders, not 10lb, and didn’t win, fading in the home straight after travelling like said dream, and I dreamt that Davy Russell gave Michael O’Leary’s horse Weapon’s Amnesty a genius of a ride – it’s all about rhythm – to run out an emphatic and still under-estimated winner of the RSA Chase and erase the memory of Solwhit yesterday for both himself and trainer Charles Byrnes. There was also a cameo in my dream for Barry Geraghty and Colm Murphy, who between them had their faith in Big Zeb completely vindicated when they all teamed up to win the Champion Chase from Forpadydeplasterer, an Irish 1-2, with Master Minded no better than fourth.

And I dreamt that an Irish-trained horse did not win the Bumper. Definitely a dream.

* For more of Donn’s thoughts, visit www.donnmcclean.com.

I’m not sure we’ve seen that Master Minded since, however. We certainly didn’t see him at Aintree three weeks later, when he was beaten by Voy Por Ustedes long before the issue of his stamina for two and a half miles came into play, and I’m not sure we saw him in the Champion Chase last year, when he ran out a really impressive winner from Well Chief and Petit Robin. I’m not sure that last year’s Champion Chase was that rich a renewal, Briareus was bang there until he fell at the last, we have no evidence that Well Chief was or is as good as he once was – he was 10 years old that day after all – and Petit Robin is not thought good enough to even contest the Champion Chase this year, the Ryanair now his aim.

We didn’t see that Master Minded at Punchestown last April either, when Big Zeb almost certainly had him cooked before he hit the last fence a belt that would have sent a weeble tumbling to the floor, and we didn’t see him on his debut this season when he could finish only third. He has been off to get his broken rib mended since, and he looked good in the Game Spirit Chase on his first run since, but you can pick holes in the solidity of that race with a straw, Voy Por Ustedes didn’t run his race, Fix The Rib (no kiddin) didn’t jump a jump, and it was left to Mahogany Blaze to chase him home. We may see the Master Minded of old tomorrow, the vibe from the Nicholls yard is a positive one, but we don’t know that we will, and the chopping of his odds for tomorrow’s contest from 7/4 to 4/5 after the Game Spirit – a race that told us not much more than the fact that he is alive and well and has four legs, all of which are in working order – doesn’t make much sense.

Tomorrow’s Champion Chase is a cracker, a much stronger contest than last year’s renewal. In Forpadydeplasterer and Kalahari King, you have the first and second in last year’s Arkle, and we know how good a Champion Chase trial the previous season’s Arkle is. We also have Big Zeb, unfashionable in the UK after a fall and a lack-lustre effort in two attempts, but top class in Ireland, who comes into the race on the back of a hugely impressive performance in landing the Tied Cottage Chase. You also have Twist Magic, Master Minded’s stable companion, who is apparently being trained differently this year, he is doing most of his work on his own, with the result that he may just be able to transfer his Sandown form to Cheltenham.

Are you backing Master Minded at even money? Do you think he is more likely to win that to lose?

* For more of Donn’s thoughts, visit www.donnmcclean.com.

“Dad,” he says as he tugs at his father’s trouser-leg, “is it bedtime yet?”

“It isn’t, son,” says his father with a smile.  “Not for a while yet.”

The child wanders outside.  It’s cold and it’s dull, it’s getting dark, it must be bedtime soon.  He remembers last year, when he waited for ages, when he went down to his friend’s house at three o’clock played there for at least three hours and they told him it was four o’clock when he came home.  He looks up at the sky, no stars, no lights, no sleigh, no reindeer, just grey cloud.  Some day.

He sits down on the step and watches as the cat makes his way over, always up for a rub.  He can see his mother just inside the kitchen window, he can see the clock behind her.  Big hand at the two, little hand just past the four.  He has seen his dad move the hands on the clock before, you just take it off the wall and do something at the back, and then the time changes.  He considers trying it, sneaking into the kitchen and moving the hands, but no, he wouldn’t be able to sneak in unnoticed, and he doesn’t know how to do it anyway.  Only grown-ups can move time.  How come it goes so quickly on your birthday but so slowly on Christmas Eve?

He thinks he is hungry, but he is too excited to know.  His mother calls him inside.  Too cold, she says, and what was he doing outside without his duffle coat?  The slice of Christmas pudding tastes nice, a little hot, but quite nice.  His little sister is there, she’s too small, she doesn’t understand, and she’ll probably still get presents anyway.  It’s not very fair is it, he has to go through the waiting, the knowing how good it is, how good it can be.

Last year his dad allowed him go to bed at seven o’clock and he lay there for ages.  He closed his eyes and tried hard to fall asleep.  He couldn’t remember ever trying to fall asleep before.  He pictured every player on the Irish football team, all 11, his first 11, he thought about what subs he would use, who should be in the squad, in what positions they could play.  Could the keeper play outfield?  Probably not.  And still he was wide awake.

It wasn’t easy, he remembers.  He knew that, once he could get to sleep, the next thing would be that he would be awake and that his presents would be there, right there at the bottom of his bed, if he had been good, which he had been, he thought, although you can never be certain.  The difficulty was in getting to sleep, ending Christmas Eve, because the following day was Christmas Day, and days just didn’t get much better that Christmas Day.

What if Christmas Day could be four days long?  Cheltenham minus one.  How well will you sleep tonight?

* For more of Donn’s thoughts, visit www.donnmcclean.com.

Incidentally, on the whole sliced bread thing, there have been many good things since sliced bread – the internet and Sinndar in the Irish Derby to name but two, and I’m not sure that the telex didn’t come along after they managed to split the bread – and surely one of them was a better thing than Peter Lyons’s finest. I’m not even fully convinced that the sliced pan is that good a thing. Give me a batch loaf that you can get a knife at and cut as thick as you like before smothering it with a couple of lumps of butter and a spoonful of raspberry jam any day.

Anyway, Long Run. They have been talking about this fellow long before he made the journey from Guy Macaire’s yard in Les Mathes to Nicky Henderson’s in Seven Barrows. And even if you hadn’t been speaking to someone who knew someone who worked at the yard, or whose boyfriend rode the horse, you would have known that he was good long before he made his British debut in the Feltham Chase at Kempton on St Stephen’s Day.

Over-hyped? I don’t think so actually. This is a horse who won a Grade 2 and a Grade 1 hurdle, a Listed Chase, a Grade 2 Chase and the Grade 1 Prix Maurice Gillois Grand Steeple-Chase (that’s easy for you to say) at Auteuil before he even considered emigrating, and he is still only five. Add now the Feltham Chase over three miles and the Grade 2 Kingmaker Chase over two miles at Warwick. He has won 10 of his 14 races, he has only once been out of the first two and he has never been out of the first three. Nicky Henderson says that he and Punchestowns are the two best steeplechasers that he has ever had. (Better than Remittance Man, Nicky?) Ref above, he is still only five.

He could be a superstar, but 2/1 about him for the RSA Chase, the Sun Alliance? Not so sure. He has a mountain to overcome. Young horses find this race tough. Maybe the French are re-writing the stats books, maybe a five-year-old French-bred of 2010 is not the same horse as a five-year-old Irish-bred of 1990 or 2000, but he is still a maturing horse. Only two six-year-olds and one five-year-old have won this race since 1978, and many very good ones have tried, including One Man, Wayward Lad, Righthand Man and Little Owl. What A Friend and Carruthers were well-fancied and well-backed six-year-olds last year, and both of them came up well short.

Star De Mohaison did win the Sun Alliance Chase as a five-year-old in 2006, but that was back in the good old days when five-year-olds received 10lb from their elders. These days, under the new weight-for-age stipulations, and because Cheltenham is a little later this year than usual, Long Run only gets 1lb. He is as good as off level weights with his elders. Also, before Star De Mohaison, you have to go back to 1950 for the previous five-year-old winner.

There has been much comment about Sam Waley-Cohen in recent days. I don’t consider the jockey as big a negative as a lot of people seem to, he may not be as stylish as Ruby Walsh or Barry Geraghty or Davy Russell, but he appears to be a good horseman, and he has ridden big winners at Cheltenham and at Aintree. However, he doesn’t ride as often as his rivals do, he does lack experience especially for a big day, and they don’t get much bigger than this. He has had just 15 rides on the racecourse since last April, he has had just one ride this month so far. He rode one winner in December (Long Run), no winners in January, one winner in February (Long Run) and no winners so far in March. Were it not for Long Run, he would be winnerless since last October. Also, the fact remains that, if this were not a Grade 1 race, he would be able to claim 5lb. That, on top of the new weight-for-age regime, means that Long Run has to find a stone more than Star De Mohaison had to, against vastly superior rivals than Star De Mohaison faced.

On top of all of that, Feltham winners have a desperate record in the Sun Alliance, even though you would think that the horse that wins the Grade 1 three-mile novices’ chase at Christmas should be a leading contender for the Cheltenham contest. They have been, but none of them have won. (Back to the Weatherbys Betting Guide.) All 16 Feltham winners who ran in the Sun Alliance Chase were beaten.

Following on from that, we don’t know how Long Run will handle Cheltenham’s undulations. Auteuil, where he has been so prolific, is a flat track, Kempton is a flat track, Warwick has a hill or two, but not where the fences are, and they are nothing like Cheltenham’s hills. That’s it. He has only run at three tracks in his life. He will face a wholly different task to anything he has faced before on Wednesday, and he showed a tendency to be a bit guessy at his fences at Kempton and Warwick, even on flat tracks. He may well be up to it, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see him make up into a top class staying chaser in the (ahem) long run, but at no better than 5/2 for next Wednesday’s race, on the evidence that we have to date, he is not for me.

* For more of Donn’s thoughts, visit www.donnmcclean.com.

(Big cheer.)

We’ll win the Arkle as well I’d say. Captain Cee Bee may be nine, and no nine-year-old may have won it since Danish Flight won it in 1988, and before him you may have to go back to Sir Ken in the 1950s when we weren’t really sure where Cheltenham was, but how many nine-year-olds have run in it? Huh? Answer me that? Wouldn’t it be a quare nine-year-old now that was still a novice over fences if it wasn’t for an injury or something? This fellow is the business, he looks like a two-year-old. And if he doesn’t win it, won’t Sizing Europe or Sports Line or Osana or Shakervilz win it? Somersby me arse.

We always win the Champion Hurdle. It’s a bugger that Solwhit has a bit of a runny nose, but if the antibiotics that he’s on from now until Thursday are anything like the antibiotics that I had last November, he’ll be out having a pint on Saturday night and he’ll be playing golf on Sunday. Go Native should be odds-on anyway. He won the Fighting Fifth and the Christmas Hurdle and he won the Supreme Novices’ last year in the same time as the Champion Hurdle was run in an hour later when he hit the front too early and started looking for people he knew in the stands half way up the run-in.

It’s a waste of time running the Cross-Country Chase at Cheltenham. They should just have a party down at Enda Bolger’s, he has the banks and the ditches down there as well, and get him to tell us which horse of his is going to win it this year. It would save him the bother of having to send his horses across the water. The only problem will be determining which of the JP horses will wear the white cap and which will wear the green and gold quartered cap, and which cap will Nina or JT be beneath, and if they will have enough different coloured caps in the weigh room to go around the others. Sizing Australia’s presence in the race makes us about a 1.01 shot, and value at that.

We’re about the same price to win the mares’ race with Quevega and Voler La Vedette backed up by No One Tells Me and Zarinava. That’s five Irish winners anyway on the first day. We could give the William Hill Chase to the British. It’s nice when they win one on the first day, keep them coming back.

There’ll be no let-up on the second day either. Rite Of Passage, a 103-rated horse on the flat who jumps hurdles like Derval O’Rourke, is not going to get beaten in the Neptune, and if he is, it will be by Quel Esprit, whom Willie Mullins says is probably his best bet of the meeting. Weapon’s Amnesty or Uimhiraceathair could win the RSA Chase and Big Zeb could easily beat Master Minded in the Champion Chase – wouldn’t he have beaten him by a couple of lengths at Punchestown last April if he hadn’t tried to carry the last fence half way up the run-in? And if we’re 1.01 to win the Cross-Country, we’d be 1.001 to win the Bumper, if Betfair would allow you go that low.

We’ll break now for the raffle and the auction, but don’t go far, we’ll be back in 20 minutes to tell you what Irish horses are going to win most of the races on Thursday and Friday.

* For more of Donn’s thoughts, visit www.donnmcclean.com.

They fill a need, that’s for sure.  The appetite for Cheltenham around these parts is pretty much insatiable these days, it’s a perennial thing, Cheltenham talk and Cheltenham thoughts the meat and drink, pre-Cheltenham evenings the pieces of bread that keep you going until the main course arrives. I’m not sure that they are the key to untold riches, I’m not sure that you are going to hear about the handicap hurdler who is a stone and a half well-in, or the novice chaser who has been running over a trip that is two miles short of his best, or the bumper horse who is better than the one that won by a distance at Fairyhouse last week, but you can still pick up some useful pieces of information and an insight into some worthwhile opinions.  And even if you don’t, sure it’s an opportunity to have a good night out and to trade Cheltenham thoughts with a couple of hundred like-minded individuals.

There were a few interesting pieces of information and several worthwhile opinions in Westmanstown last night.  Willie Mullins was on the phone, says that his novice hurdlers’ targets are pretty much sorted: Blackstairmountain and Flat Out in the Supreme, Quel Esprit in the Neptune, Enterprise Park in the Albert Bartlett. Fionnegas will go for either the Neptune or the Albert Bartlett, but he’s probably thinking Albert Bartlett at this stage.  Scotsirish goes for the Ryanair, Shakervilz goes for the Arkle (both outsiders with good chances) along with Sports Line, and Quel Esprit is probably his best chance of the week.

Davy Russell was right there at the adjoining table.  Of course he likes Solwhit, thinks that Go Native is a big danger though.  He is hopeful for Weapon’s Amnesty and Carlito Brigante, he likes Tavern Times and he says that Barry (Geraghty) won’t tell you anything about Super Kenny, a new juvenile hurdler of Nicky Henderson’s, a French recruit owned by Highclere, that it’s all hush hush.  Colm Murray says, Barry?  Barry says he knows nothing about him, he runs on Friday at Newbury, that’s all he knows.  Davy says hush hush.  The audience say guffaw guffaw.  It’s good craic.

Barry does like Punchestowns and Finian’s Rainbow, mind you, reckons they’re his best two chances for the week, Paddy Power likes Drumbaloo in the bumper, Evan Williams reckons Nicky Henderson will have the 1-2 in the RSA Chase with Punchestowns and Long Run, Colm Murphy is wondering if Willie might forget to declare Quevega, because Voler La Vedette is in great form, as is Big Zeb, probably just double-handed this year but two live chances.

Most of them are at this stage.  No losers yet.

* For more of Donn’s thoughts, visit www.donnmcclean.com.

So I took myself and our five-year-old up to Leopardstown yesterday.  Divide and conquer.  It’s a tough one for said five-year-old, she loves horses but, if she touches one and rubs her eye without washing her hands, her eye will flair up like a strained tendon.  (Scary day the day we discovered that one.)  So she knows she’s not allowed pet them, not even when they are standing still, but she likes when they look at her.  Mansony (number four, big white noseband thing) looked her straight in the eye in the pre-parade ring and it made her day.  She liked the chips, she liked standing by the rail and hearing the horses’ footsteps, she loved being high up in the stand and using the binoculars (if you look through the other end the horses are really small apparently), and, when her nose got cold just before the bumper, she decided that we would watch the last race from inside the glass and that we’d stick around for just some of the après-racing gallops, not all of them.

So we saw the much-vaunted gallops, now considered as significant a stepping stone to Cheltenham glory as the King George.  Hmmm.  I’m not so sure.  I remember Sky’s The Limit in 2006 all right, a white charger emerging from the half-light and everyone wondering what it was before finding out and backing him into 11/1 for the Coral Cup and watching him doing the exact same thing in shimmering daylight at Cheltenham, remarkably, a five-year-old under 11st 12lb.  There were a couple of others, like Total Enjoyment in 2004 and Cooldine last year, but most horses are just there for a good leg-stretch and a bit of a school, and it’s difficult enough to draw too many conclusions.  For an antonym, remember Rule Supreme, failed to complete the school, then won the Sun Alliance Chase two weeks later.

I guess people are there to see what nuggets of information they can pick up, things that ‘normal’ people won’t see.  I think it’s an Irish thing, it’s in our racing culture to try to get the inside track.  We love to be in the know, have a little bit of knowledge that we think most people don’t have.  It’s why the bumper, the race with by far the fewest lines of form on view, is historically the biggest betting race on an Irish racecard, it’s why people still flock to pre-Cheltenham evenings, it’s why punters ask you what you know, not what you fancy or where you think the value lies.

J’y Vole looked good and Mikael D’Haguenet jumped more than adequately and Barker will need to come on a fair bit and Forpadydeplasterer is alive and well, but what a horse does under race conditions these days is much more relevant to Cheltenham for me, and Tranquil Sea looked very good in the Newlands Chase.  I would be lying if I said that I didn’t kick myself a bit when I saw the Edward O’Grady-trained gelding coming clear on the run-in under just a squeeze from Andrew Mac.  There is no real reason why I would say that, but if I did it would be a lie.  Metaphorically of course.  There I’ve been, looking at 7/1 about him for the Ryanair Chase for a while now, thinking I’ll be clever and wait for non-runner-no-bet before backing him, just in case.

Even when I saw him entered and declared yesterday, I thought, sure even if he beats his rivals here doing handsprings, they can’t shorten him up too much, and he probably won’t be that impressive, he will probably need the run at least a little and he almost certainly needs a bit further than this two-mile trip to be at his best.  Clever indeed.  Wrong on nearly every single count.  He could hardly have been more impressive and the bookmakers are not a collective that is apt to miss an opportunity.  He is now no better than 5/1 and that is much closer to his correct price, unfortunately.

“That was a great day Dad.”  Made mine.

* For more of Donn’s thoughts visit www.donnmcclean.com.

Dig a little deeper.  He was an exciting novice chaser for Pat Doyle two seasons ago, he finished second to Pomme Tiepy in the Woodlands Park Chase and he finished second to Pomme Tiepy in the Ten Up Chase, both three-mile novice chases, both Grade 2 races, both run on soft ground.  He ran a cracker to finish second to Casey Jones in a three-mile handicap chase at Punchestown in October on his last start for Doyle, after which he was off the track for four months.  His Ascot run was his first for Emma Lavelle, and he just seemed to lack match practice, but the experience and the run should have put him spot on for whatever was next.  Turns out, what’s next is the Racing Post Chase today.

A couple more things on that Ascot run for a second.  The Sawyerwon his next race off a 4lb higher mark, then ran a cracker to finish third behind Monet’s Garden in the Ascot Chase, with the result that he is now rated 18lb higher than he was when he beat Kilcrea Castle by two lengths.  Kilcrea Castle races off a 1lb higher mark today.  He was due to meet Miss Mitch on 2lb better terms for a two-length beating today, but she was lame this morning so she is out of the race.  That’s one less to beat, but it would have been surprising if he wouldn’t have improved enough to have her measure this time anyway.  (Easy to say now, I know.)

When you bet ante post, you are effectively betting a double: the horse to run and the horse to win.  You need both legs to go in before you can collect.  Kilcrea Castle was entered in the three-mile chase at Wincanton last Saturday, so he didn’t look like a definite intended runner in today’s race until all the 20/1 had been taken, a blue line appeared on Oddschecker and the best you could have got was 14/1.  Then he was taken out of the Wincanton race, which was beaten by the weather anyway, and it was all roads to Kempton.

Even when you see the money, even when it looks like he is an intended runner, there are still crocodiles lurking.  Big Fella Thanks shaped like an intended runner in today’s race, but he wasn’t even entered at the five-day stage.  Possol shaped like an intended runner, but the ground scuppered that one and he wasn’t declared on Thursday.  Miss Mitch shaped like an intended runner, but, as above, she was lame this morning, so she’s out.

Nacarat and Madison Du Berlais set a fair standard, they both love Kempton and the race generally favours highweights (nine of the last 10 winners carried 10st 13lb or more, three of the last six carried 11st 12lb).  However, the ground is rarely as soft for the Racing Post Chase as it is probably going to be today, and that may just make it difficult for those at the top of the handicap.

Fistral Beach will be popular, but he is 4lb out of the handicap, there is a chance that he doesn’t truly stay three miles on soft ground, and Ruby Walsh will be going without supper this evening if he is intent on doing 10st.  Razor Royale is an interesting runner who will be a decent price, but Kilcrea Castle is a classy individual who is potentially a fair bit better than his handicap mark.  He will love the soft ground, he goes well right-handed, he should stay the distance, he jumps well and it looks like he has been trained for the race.  The 5/1 that you can get about Kilcrea Castle still looks big.

Let’s hope we get the first leg of the double up at least.

* For more of Donn’s thoughts visit www.donnmcclean.com.

Now, a similar affliction is creeping into the novice hurdlers.

Perhaps it comes with weight of numbers and strength in-depth. You would have had to have search long and hard to put together a couple of yards in the UK and Ireland that together would be able to muster a team of bumper horses to rival the one that Mullins seems to be able to put together every year. It’s a bit like the Galway minor hurlers in that regard. Willie Mullins is to bumper horses what Coca Cola is to the soft drinks industry, and that’s just the way it is.

Now his novice hurdlers are at it. There is a difference, however, in the context of Cheltenham. With the bumper horses, there is only one race, Champion Bumper or bust, run in the bumper or stay at home in your box and wait for Punchestown. With the novice hurdlers, you have options, which makes it head-scratching stuff from a betting perspective. Supreme Novices’, Neptune, Albert Bartlett, the three main options, throw in the Triumph and the Fred Winter if you are talking about a four-year-old, and the County Hurdle and the Coral Cup if you are so inclined (novices can run in them too). It’s only two years since Fiveforthree, all set for the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, was re-routed at the 11th hour to the Ballymore Properties, such as it was, and won it, beating Venalmar into second place. Those who backed Fiveforthree for the Supreme or Venalmar for the Ballymore felt fairly aggrieved, and those who had a double the pair of them strongly considered giving it all up and taking up origami.

So how would you split them up?  Blackstairmountain for the Supreme, that looks safe enough.  Flat Out for that as well possibly, an outsider, but he did look good in winning at Punchestown on Wednesday, maybe Morning Supreme, if she goes well at Naas on Sunday. Mares can do well in the Supreme, they have won three of the last 14 renewals and they get a 7lb allowance these days.

Quel Esprit has the Neptune option, but he looked so good in winning over three miles at Cork in December, you have to think that the Albert Bartlett is the race for him, which means that Mullins may rely in Fionnegas in the Neptune. He ran a cracker to chase home Dunguib in the Deloitte, and he should be well suited by stepping up again in distance. On the other hand, he could step up to three miles, Quel Esprit could go in the Neptune, and Morning Supreme could join him there. (Stop chewing that pencil.)

Enterprise Park is probably on track for the Albert Bartlett, he looked very good in beating Quito De La Roque and Huge De Vindecy over two and three-quarter miles at Limerick over Christmas, and both of those horses have since come out and won, although he also has the Neptune option. So many permutations, and that’s without the fringe players, like Arvika Ligeonniere, Don’t Turn Bach, Rhyl Accord and their ilk. It’s a nice issue to have for the trainer, but it is still an issue, and it still needs to be resolved.

Secant Star for the Triumph. He’s surely as safe a starter as Richie Cummins.

* For more of Donn’s thoughts, visit www.donnmcclean.com.