Royale and Ricci wow the Haydock crowd on a day when a Charles Byrnes handicap win leaves heads being scratched

For a race that concluded with a slow-motion finish in pouring rain beneath a miserable grey sky, there was something strangely beautiful about the Betfair Chase.

In saying that, there must be an acceptance that beautiful means different things to different people. If you need your racing to be conducted by speedy thoroughbreds on fast summer turf, this will not have floated your boat. Given the amount of rain we had at Haydock, it might even have sunk it.

Yet to those of us who marvel at the sort of noble courage and unwavering commitment displayed by Royale Pagaille and Grey Dawning, this Betfair Chase was undoubtedly beautiful. So, too, was what came after.