Let’s start with the overall time. Old Park Star made almost every yard in the Rossington Main, recording an overall time of 3:47.34. That was 3.8s quicker than Brentford Hope who carried a lb less when we factor in Megan Fox’s 7 lb claim. That made Old Park Star the fastest winner of this race since Mister Fisher in 2019, also trained by Nicky Henderson, though the races run in the interim period have mainly been on ground described as Soft or Heavy. The overall time is good without being spectacular, but given that Old Park Star had to make all of his own running and the fact that he pulled 18 lengths clear of the rest means we can add a significant upgrade to the overall time. The closing sectional times that you can see above offer a much better idea as to how quick Old Park Star was in the Haydock straight. Admittedly he started behind Brentford Hope in a race run with a finishing speed of 109%, but over the final 6 furlongs he was 6.19s faster. Given that Nico de Boinville was only nudging away after jumping the 2nd last and Brentford Hope was involved in a driving battle all the way to the line, that suggests this was a top class performance from Old Park Star. A top speed of 35.83 mph made Old Park Star the fastest horse on the speedometer in the Rossington Main, but it also meant that he was the fastest horse to run in any of the 4 hurdles races run on the Haydock card. Hurricane Pat finished 2nd. He was a long way behind Old Park Star at the line, but his final time of 3:51.25 meant that he would have finished just 0.11s (half a length) behind Brentford Hope in the handicap hurdle. He came into this contest on the back of an impressive win at Sandown in December. On that occasion, he was a second quicker than Soldier Reeves over the final quarter of a mile. Soldier Reeves narrowed that margin significantly at Haydock, but I suspect that the early exertions from Hurricane Pat, who attempted to go with Old Park Star when the pace lifted, meant that he finished a tired horse. He was within 0.25s of Old Park Star in furlongs 12 and 13 and paid for that effort after jumping the last. The more patiently ridden Soldier Reeves was ridden to finish his race, but the fact that he was still 0.88s slower than Old Park Star in the final quarter of a mile, despite being driven all the way to the line, points to the gulf in class between them.