Fact To File shines on seasonal comeback in John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase

With a nod to Anton Du Beke who was reduced to tears on Saturday’s Strictly, sometimes we are simply reminded exactly why we all do it, and for the neutral this year’s John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase was a compelling example of the winter jumps game.

Willie Mullins claimed it was probably the best edition of the race he could ever remember and - with Grade 1 winners just about everywhere you looked and some smart judges making cogent cases for the sole non-G1 scorer in the field too - it was hard to disagree before the jostling began in earnest down at the start.

Thankfully, onlookers were left with the same sort of feeling post-race too.

This is bombproof form in the book, no ifs, no buts. No torrential rain or late defectors, no falls, soft unseats or unlucky what-might-have-beens, just a spot of good, old-fashioned race-riding between a wily Mark Walsh and Jack Kennedy late in the piece as Fact To File found a little extra to repel the late challenge of Spillane’s Tower in the second silks of the winner’s owner JP McManus.

What a result for McManus. It looked like a highly promising crop of novices in the green and gold last season and, after Corbetts Cross had to be ruled out of Saturday’s Betfair Chase, it was noteworthy that they were keen to test the water (as it were) with both Limerick Lace and Capodanno, who was supplemented in at Haydock and became Mullins’ first ever runner in the race.

Were the A-listers being kept back for Sunday’s prime-time show closer to home? We are left in no doubt of that now.

It is perhaps unfair to view the John Durkan through the prism of Saturday’s feature race in Britain, as there has been clear daylight between the two jumps racing landscapes for several years now, but it was almost impossible not to look at Sunday’s result and conclude that the gap has yawned ever wider still.

This was no cat-and-mouse 'trial' event, nor a survival of the fittest in slow-motion conditions as Dan Skelton had slightly feared for the progressive Grey Dawning when speaking to ITV in the parade ring before the big one at Haydock.

In fairness to Grey Dawning, I would maintain that losing a bad-ground Betfair hasn’t dented his overall credentials at all, but where he might have finished in the John Durkan is arguably not something on which the Skeltons will wish to dwell for long.

When your Punchestown pace-setter is a nine-time Grade 1-winning dual Gold Cup hero, you can just about guarantee the cream will rise to the top and what's important to stress is that although the proven eight-year-olds were edged out by rivals aged seven and six respectively, this did not have a 'changing of the guard' feel to it – not one bit. More a case of the pool of top Irish chasers getting larger. After all, Galopin Des Champs and Fastorslow can more often than not be banked on to run their races at this venue and may just have done so once again.

This time, that level was not quite good enough.

So, what now for the winner and the second - or the third and the fourth for that matter? To be perfectly honest, you could go down to the fifth (Minella Cocconer), sixth (Journey With Me) and seventh/last (Inothewayurthinkin) and probably make an argument for them all landing on very nice races at some stage throughout the campaign.

But don’t give up on Galopin, was the over-riding message from Mullins - who seemed happiest talking about his "massive" effort from the front above all else, and you’d have to imagine Townend will be looking forward to a return to three miles on him around Leopardstown over Christmas.

It seems unlikely but I’d love to see Fact To File or Fastorslow added into the King George mix at Kempton given how that race has cut up over the past week or so.

Until then, we look forward to the Timeform ratings being firmed up early in the week as one would expect they're going to be pretty impressive numbers – how can they not be?

Personally, it feels a bit early in the season for a 10-out-of-10 performance to be awarded to Sunday’s star Fact To File, but it was a race that delivered and promised in equal measure, and I've been watching it back all afternoon now looking for faults, trying to find something I don’t like. I like it all.

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