AS YOU WERE IN NORFOLK

Horses running out, omitted obstacles galore, mostly very ordinary animals pelting around tight corners at speeds usually beyond their compass... it was business as usual at the first Fakenham meeting of the autumn. It's always struck me as slightly peculiar that this venue, so much an intrinsic part of the fabric of small-scale jumps racing that it was known as West Norfolk Hunt until 1963, is the one that most resembles an ultra-sharp Flat track such as Chester - nothing it can help, of course, but peculiar all the same.

A rather less frivolous matter is the injury sustained by Adam Pogson in a bruising opening selling hurdle, when his mount Protocol was brought down. He required sedation before airlifting to hospital in King's Lynn, where he is believed to have sustained damage to his pelvis.

A regular rider for a variety of small trainers in the East Midlands, more importantly he serves as the stable jockey, assistant trainer and general brains behind the operation of his father Charles' smart permit operation in Nottinghamshire. The Pogsons have managed to tease 23 wins and in some case considerable improvement out of some decidedly ordinary animals in the last five seasons alone - could anyone really have foreseen Lord Baskerville run up a hat-trick and gain an official hurdles rating of 127 this summer after 47 straight defeats previously? - and getting wins out of something as wayward as Seymour Weld rates no small feat, either.

There must be a real risk that the Pogson family's livelihood as a whole could be placed in some jeopardy with Adam unlikely to ride out, train and coordinate campaigns for the string in the immediate term at least, and it is my earnest hope he makes a speedy recovery.

Another point of interest at Fakenham today was that it represented the first Racetech call for the "Croc", J A McGrath, for as long as I can remember. This looks like the first sign of him honouring his commitment to take in more racecourse commentary, having admitted earlier in the year that the BBC's dwindling coverage was doing the quality of his calls few favours, although I must admit I thought he wouldn't be factored back into the roster until the New Year.

Having had to put up with horses flying about everywhere, and a PA system which whistled violently every few words, this must have seemed a very different world to the Epsoms, Aintrees and Longchamps of much of his year to date.

A STRONG RESOLVE AND A FEAR OF THE NEW

Nobody likes to see good chasers lose the plot, but there had to be the fear we'd seen all Strong Resolve had to offer the game after a pretty grim 2005-6 campaign.

Lucinda Russell's grey sank all of 25lb down the handicap, still essentially jumping pretty well up front as before, but giving way very tamely and recording no finish within 23l of the winner over fences during the entire campaign.

How pleasing it has been to see, therefore, that a good deal of the old resolution has returned in two starts this season, a 1/2l second to an unexposed David Pipe 5yo in Twelve Paces at Carlisle a fortnight ago being followed by a facile all-the-way success at Haydock today (both over 3m or thereabouts).

You can hardly blame connections for having aimed him at the Grand National in 2005 (for which he ultimately started third favourite), his superior jumping giving rise to the belief that he'd excel over the exacting Aintree course, but hindsight is a wonderful thing, and it became more apparent as 2006 wore on that he was still carrying a deal of mental baggage from his bad experiences in both that race and the Becher Chase subsequently.

Confidence restored, he finds himself with a great deal in hand over the handicapper, more than any raise for today's win should be able to negate, and given his preference for conventional galloping tracks he should be able to find more opportunities around the Haydocks, Ayrs and Carlisles of this world this winter.

All very heartening, and I'd not begrudge him a big run in the Scottish National if continued progress over the season makes a tilt at that contest a realistic option.

Away from the horses, much of the talk at Haydock's first jumps meeting of the autumn concerned the appearance of three portable fences down the back straight, representing phase one of clerk of the course Kirkland Tellwright's plans to phase out the course's famous drop fences.

Tellwright's interview in the Racing Post in April indicated this was a necessary development, as Haydock strives to "maintain tradition and move with the times". It is also the hope that a repeat of instances such as the omission of three fences at one meeting last year can be avoided hereafter by resiting the new portable obstacles away from false, waterlogged or frozen ground as necessary.

All well and good, and the new obstacles appeared to pass muster when schooled over by some of Ferdy Murphy's string earlier in the year. In the heat of battle at full speed, however, the early signs today are that they do not constitute the same challenge as their antecedents, with a number of animals getting away with one or two more liberties than would have been the case hitherto.

Of more alarm is the fact that a phased introduction is being persevered with. There are inherent risks in having one set of fences on the course softer (as these certainly appear to be) than others; horses don't know the difference between one and the other, and run the risk of being tricked into thinking, for example, the mistake they got away with at the last ditch in the back straight won't be any more punished if repeated at the ditch in front of the stands - which, for the time being at least, remains as big, black and stiff as ever before.

How should the introduction of the portables have been performed, assuming it needed doing at all? All in one fell swoop, preferably. Haydock's chase course is separate from the Flat equivalent solely in use from May to September, so there was surely never going to be the same issue as with some other tracks - whose jumps courses are in more continuous use around the calendar - of there being insufficient time to replace every fence between the Swinton Hurdle meeting and today's.

Another alternative might have been to have had all the portables ready at once and in use on the hurdles course - with all chases on a card being run first, a la Southwell - so that an extended period of testing under race conditions could have been undertaken, but given the course's propensity to getting very heavy underfoot, what state that would have left the ground in by the middle of a wet winter doesn't bear thinking about.

For the time being, then, we have this halfway house situation, and I'd be keen to learn what difference, positive or negative, there is to the percentage of fallers around Haydock's chase course come the end of the season, and how much that may be realistically attributable to the new obstacles. The Lancashire venue will never not be a galloper's track, but let's hope its status as a proper jumper's track need not be placed in too much doubt hereafter.