Ed Chamberlin Saturday Verdict: Defi Du Seuil lights up Ascot while Haydock delivers again

We’ve been at pains on ITV Racing this season to treat each big race on its merits. Appreciating the valuable, important contests in their own right and trying not to make everything about the Cheltenham Festival.

For example, it was important to let today’s winner, Defi Du Seuil, bask in the glory of a brilliant display in the Clarence House Chase, his seventh Grade One victory and one that suggests he is getting better and better.

We got the head to head and the rematch we wanted, and turning into the straight you had the incredible old warrior that is Un De Sceaux in front and jumping boldly with the young pretender stalking him and waiting to pounce.

The mistake two out was costly for Un De Sceaux but had he gone faster from the off, had he winged the penultimate fence like he has so many times before, it would have made no difference as Defi Du Seuil was far too good on the day.

Defi Du Seuil's team, led by trainer Philip Hobbs and owner JP McManus, will enjoy today but the fact is, that performance puts down a serious marker and makes a big statement looking ahead to the Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase in March.

Now it's over to Altior in two weeks’ time at Newbury to remind us all that he remains force to be reckoned with in the two-mile chasing division while it will be fascinating to see how A Plus Tard and Chacun Pour Soi fare at the Dublin Racing Festival should they indeed turn up.

As ever, Un De Sceaux went down on his sword and I have to say that this wonderful horse encapsulates everything that is great about National Hunt racing. This horse is still racing with such verve and enthusiasm at the age of 12 and his connections are such a credit to the sport.

The O'Connell's come over to support their pride and joy in big numbers, decked in their Un De Sceaux scarves, and I love the way every man, women and child clapped Defi Du Seuil all the way back to the winners’ enclosure after the race. They and the horse are a credit to the sport.

Today was a big day in its own right, there's no question about that, but the Champion Chase is now shaping up like an epic renewal and despite Defi Du Seuil's heroics today, I still have a feeling Chacun Pour Soi might be the bet by the time March rolls around.

With such thoughts in mind, it is just impossible to not start focusing on those four big days which are starting to loom large on the horizon.

I wrote in this column two weeks ago that the build up to the Festival felt more low key than usual and plenty of the races had yet to spark into life but today might just have been what we all needed.

Defi Du Seuil has really laid down the gauntlet to Altior and co and in doing so, has got me excited about the prospect of the two, or three, or maybe even four big guns turning for home in unison in what could just be a Champion Chase for the ages.

It's not just the Champion Chase that has suddenly started to hot up. The last few days have seen a number of big players emerging for the Sky Bet Supreme Novices' Hurdle and in last Sunday’s Sky Bet Moscow Flyer, one of the season’s hype horses, Andy Dufresne, bounced back into the Supreme picture having settled much better to win nicely.

He’s a player. However, the horse that really burst on to the scene came at Newbury on Wednesday. Shishkin was monstrously impressive. At the start of the season the stable gossip was that this was the best of the Henderson novice hurdlers.

It’s taken a while but now that’s looking like correct information. After the way he pulled for his head in the early stages, I fully expected Shishkin to fall in a heap in the Newbury straight. To then quicken smartly in the deep ground in the last furlong was seriously impressive. The performance had a real wow factor. Sky Bet go 6/1 Non Runner No Bet in the race they sponsor and that is pretty tempting.

I still wouldn’t give up on Edwardstone as a Supreme contender, too, after he was just touched off by Stolen Silver in a pulsating finish to the Sky Bet Supreme Trial Rossington Main Novices' Hurdle at Haydock.

He’s going to be such a different proposition in a fast-run race and I'm a little surprised to see that the sponsors have eased him out to 12/1 for the Festival opener.

I don’t know what it is about the Haydock Hurdles track but it seems to throw up countless exciting finishes and if the Rossington Main Novices' Hurdle was good, The New One Unibet Hurdle was even better.

It was fascinating to hear Mick Fitzgerald describe on air how Nico de Boinville would love to have another go on Pentland Hills and he’s another horse beaten today who might well have enhanced his Cheltenham Festival claims.

I’m not surprised that Sky Bet have left his Champion Hurdle price unchanged at 6/1 but nevertheless, the Champion Hurdle waters remain murky.

With that in mind, I did wonder if Olly Murphy might fancy a crack at the big one with Thomas Darby following his successful return to hurdles today.

Give it's such a weak and wide-open renewal, I thought he might be tempted and you’d hope connections of the likes of Honeysuckle would be thinking long and hard about a race that really does lack star quality this year.

Talking of star quality, Willie Mullins was at Ascot today and oozed pride despite Un De Sceaux's defeat.

Mullins still has plenty to smile about and holds the trump card in the National Hunt Chase with Carefully Selected, who looked tailor made for that contest when winning at Punchestown on Sunday, and then sent a first raider to Market Rasen on Thursday and Panic Attack absolutely hosed up. How ominous is that?

Plenty of races are still up in the air and I reckon that makes Cheltenham’s Trials Day next weekend the most important for years. Big guns look like they’re being lined up left, right and centre. Clues galore look guaranteed. Finally the Cheltenham build-up is starting to fizz.

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