Notre Pere appears none the worse for his disappointing display in the Betfair Chase.

Connections of last season's Coral Welsh National and Punchestown Guinness Gold Cup winner are mystified by the performance and will spend the next few days trying to discover why Notre Pere ran so badly.

The eight-year-old had been expected to be suited by the testing conditions on Merseyside. However, he was never travelling and eventually finished a distant fifth to Kauto Star.

"He arrived home first thing this morning, there are no outward signs as to why he ran so poorly. It was just too bad to be true and we will look through the week to see if we can find the reason why he didn't spark," said trainer Jim Dreaper on Sunday.

"We have to try to get him back to what we think he can do. Hopefully it was just a blip.

"Maybe he remembered the hard fall he got (in the JNwine.com Champion Chase at Down Royal earlier this month), but the straight answer is we just don't know, we need to find out."