Border Castle tracked leaders, led after 6th, stayed on strongly from 2 out

Takeroc held up in mid-division, steady headway to track leaders 6th, challenged 3 out, edged left and kept on same pace run-in

Kalahari King held up min mid-division, headway 6th, chasing 1st 2 next, stayed on same pace

French Saulaie held up in mid-division, headway 6th, chasing leaders next, kept on same pace from 2 out

Pearl King held up towards rear, headway 6th, chasing leaders next, kept on same pace from 2 out

Bywell Beau led, mistake 5th, headed approaching next, hung left and weakened approaching next

Serabad mid-division, headway 4th, soon chasing leaders, hung left and weakened after 3 out

Penzance mid-division, headway 6th, soon chasing leaders, outpaced approaching next

Lough Derg in rear-division, outpaced and lost place 4th, soon behind

Sporazene chased leaders, lost place approaching 3 out

Wizard Of Us soon prominent, chasing leaders 6th, soon lost place

Ellerslie Tom chased leaders, led before 6th, headed after 6th, weakened 3 out

Ignotus tracked leaders to 3rd, took keen hold, lost place 6th

Pilca held up towards rear, behind from 6th

Chivalry reluctant to race, soon tailed off, pulled up before 5th

Khachaturian with leaders, lost place after 4th, behind when pulled up before 6th

A bigger field than usual for the Scottish Champion Hurdle and, with Lough Derg, rated 160, setting the standard, in his bid to clinch the Order of Merit, his mere presence meant that eleven horses were running from out of the handicap.

BORDER CASTLE, who was 2lb wrong, produced an excellent performance. Allowed to slide to the head of the field at the fourth-last, he stole two or three lengths on his rivals rounding the home turn. Joined two out by Takeroc, the pair jumped the last two flights asone, but the winner found the most for pressure and fairly galloped away to the line to post a notable success.

Takeroc, a high-class novice chaser, reverted to hurdles here and was 5lb out of the handicap. He again travelled well, and he was produced to win his race two out, only for the winner to pull out the most from the final flight. He is a very useful horse, who should take high rank next season over fences.

French Saulaie had run a cracker when third in the County Hurdle and he again performed creditably here, only for the leaders to run away from him from two out. His stablemate Pearl King made headway to chase the leading group in the straight, but, racing off a 16lb higher mark than when winning at Aintree last time, he was unable to land a telling blow. Bywell Beau set a searching gallop.

Of the others, Lough Derg found this drop down in trip all against him. Ignotus was well beaten on his handicap debut (TO’R)

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