A storming victory but tenacious doubters are still out there for Bravemansgame

Have the doubters been answered? It looks like there have been plenty of them, when it comes to Bravemansgame, because he hasn't started favourite for either of his races this season and yet is now proved to be the superb talent we were long ago told to expect.

Maybe that shows the traumatising effect of a really disappointing effort, in his case failing to beat a single rival in the classy four-runner novice chase at Aintree in the spring. That was the last time we collectively had him as the market leader and he blatantly failed to run his race.

It would have been easy enough to put a line through it, throwing it away as a bit of end-of-term form, because he'd also been below his best at Aintree the previous April. But we made Ahoy Senor favourite over him for the Charlie Hall and yesterday it was L'Homme Presse who proved more popular. Both horses had finished ahead of Bravemansgame at Aintree.