He certainly didn't throw his best leap of the race at the second last in the Monroe's Live Rated Novice Chase, but it was soon apparent that Vent De La Cote (11/8 into 11/10 on track and from bigger earlier) had too much for his rivals in the Ballinrobe's fifth event. Archie Meade and Danny Howard made a good fist of things from the front but a confident Mark Walsh merely had to shake up the J P McManus-owned and Martin Brassil-trained Vent De La Cote from the last.

The successful French-bred soon cruised by Archie Meade to score by a length, with six lengths back to Captain Hox in third.

"He was probably more at home over the country style fences rather than the bigger tracks," reflected Brassil.

"He has taken a little bit of time to learn his trade over fences, he is sensible but he will get there alright.

"He is ground dependent, he is a soft ground horse. We just saw this race and said we'd see how he'd get on here. It's easy to plan after that. Hopefully it won't have taken too much out of him."

A.E. Lynch, rider of Festive Day trained by Norman Lee, reported to the Stewards' Secretaries that his mount jumped left throughout.

(DM & EM)