‘Turners turnout was utterly woeful - and there’s no legitimate excuse’

'Turners turnout a huge disappointment'

We are told there are not enough opportunities, the ground is not right and the prize-money in Britain is rubbish, but none of those can be used as a legitimate excuse for the utterly woeful turnout in the Turners' Novice Chase on Thursday.

The old cliche 'the right horses are in there' was firmly knocking around and that's a fairly big understatement for Bob Olinger and Galopin Des Champs. They faced only two rivals, with one of those another for trainer Willie Mullins, and while the clash was fascinating, having just four horses in a Grade 1 race at the sport's pinnacle meeting, with none of them trained in Britain, is hugely disappointing.

The race was run on fresh ground and it was officially soft for the running of the Turners, which was far from an extreme.