Lots of novices are blotting their copybook - but this 33-1 shot for the Supreme is a happy exception

As we get closer to the Cheltenham Festival you would expect the picture for the big novice hurdle events would become clearer, but with some of the more fancied runners putting in disappointing performances, it's as uncertain as ever.

Last season’s Champion Bumper winner Jasmin De Vaux won at Navan on Saturday, but apart from collecting the €7,000 first prize there will not have been much about the run to cheer his connections. His jumping was modest (at best) and the time of his race was significantly slower than that of the four-year-old maiden run half an hour earlier and, to add further insult, over four lengths slower from the last to the line.

Astonishingly, two bookmakers saw fit to cut his price for Cheltenham, which is a bit like shortening the odds on a football team to win the league after they’ve just lost 5-0.