I'm back on Betfair and raring to go - but I certainly won't be getting on this festival-winning flop

I was shocked to read that Darren and Annaley Yates were selling their entire string, particularly after the infectious enthusiasm they had shown after winning the Challow Hurdle with The New Lion last month. It’s like dropping your girlfriend off after an amazing night out where she says it was the best evening of her life, only for her to text you the next morning saying she never wants to see you again.

Whatever JP McManus paid for The New Lion, he was probably worth a little bit more after Jasmin De Vaux, his nearest market rival for the Turners at Cheltenham, disappointed in the Grade 1 Lawlor's of Naas on Sunday.

I say 'disappointed', but surely anyone who had watched his awkward hurdling technique on his debut at Navan last month would not have been overly surprised. On this evidence, he has a long way to go to show anywhere near the level of hurdle form one would have expected on the back of his Champion Bumper success.