Ferny Hollow put up the best performance by a novice chaser this season when landing a Grade 1 at Leopardstown on Sunday, showing form that marks him out as top-class on Timeform's scale.
Ferny Hollow did not face a simple task in the Racing Post Novice Chase at Leopardstown on Sunday as he had to concede 13 lb to smart four-year-old filly Riviere d'Etel, an easy winner of her three previous starts over fences.
He proved up to the task, however, scoring by a length and a half in a race run at a strong gallop and in a time around three and a half seconds faster than the following handicap chase over the same course and distance.
Ferny Hollow beat Appreciate It when landing the Champion Bumper, inflicted the only defeat of Bob Olinger's career when winning a maiden on his one start over hurdles last season and has clearly taken really well to chasing.
His rating of 165p - which hits the benchmark for top-class form - is 6 lb higher than what the next best in the division, Edwardstone, has achieved and he will be extremely tough to beat in the Sporting Life Arkle, for which he is the 2/1 favourite.
Ferny Hollow's Timeform report for Sunday's win stated: "It's hard to see anything laying much of a glove on him at either the Dublin or Cheltenham Festivals on this evidence."
Edwardstone (159) looks a notch below Ferny Hollow but he is a very smart chaser in his own right and followed up a wide-margin win in the Henry VIII Novices' Chase at Sandown with another emphatic success in the Wayward Lad Novices' Chase at Kempton on Monday.
Trainer Alan King compared Edwardstone favourably to Voy Por Ustedes and My Way de Solzen, and it's easy to why as Edwardstone has already achieved a higher Timeform rating than that pair did for their Arkle victories. They didn't have a rival of Ferny Hollow's calibre to deal with, however.
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