If the focus was on events at Ascot during Champions Day, the substantial number of young racegoers at Stratford didn't notice: another example of the power of social media promotion by the innovative Invades Group, populating our final Saturday fixture with smiling faces amid the sunshine and keen wind.

Make no mistake, the changing of the seasons is upon us, witnessed by 3 Jumps cards to the Flat's two. Despite the lack of rainfall south of the Trent, the jumps calendar is winding up to full pace.

Going conditions continue to disadvantage racecourses with small fields, but despite this, the 42 runners across the seven races all recorded slower than average times, indicating that the tracks are delivering the optimal going for the prevailing weather, and that perhaps natural caution is holding many trainers back. After all, one has a full 12 months to rue a hasty decision to run that results in injury.

On-Course bookmakers had every reason to rue their decision to sponsor the second race on the card, a Novices Handicap Chase over 2m6f, the second of three consecutive winners by favourites, in this instance, Senator, a precocious French-bred four year old sent chasing early, and winning on debut for the Snowden - Sheehan partnership. He wasn't much troubled to win this by a comfortable 5l from Harry Derham's Ignore The Door.

Snowden has been an advocate of the recently-derided summer jumps programme, having run over 100 horses since the start of May. With 26 winners, no great surprise then that he is a supporter of faster ground conditions on our summer courses.

Sheehan enjoyed a second success an hour later in the second of the three chases, this time for Tom Gretton. Crac Du Megaurdais scored a maiden chase success at the seventh attempt in the 2m 6f handicap, leading from three out, before being headed and rallying gamely to win by a half length, the day's shortest winning margin.

Back in the plate for Snowden again, Sheehan ws only 2 1/4l off a treble on Ride Like A Girl in the 2m mares handicap hurdle, but winner Watamu was always going well and won readily for Jonathan Burke and Emma Lavelle.

Seven maidens faced the starter in the opening novice hurdle, proving yet more evidence of the impact of French-bred horses on our sport nowadays. The ring sent off Katarcice favourite on the back of near misses at Huntingdon, and ring intelligence was correct. The six year old gelding found the winning habit at his 9th racecourse outing and the 2l margin left plenty in hand for Fergal O'Brien and rider Jack Hogan.

Son of Dubawi Seraphic has a career 46 starts to date: quite some record for a six year old. He scored his first British success over hurdles for Graham McPherson and David Killahena since scoring for Hugo Merienne at Clairefontaine over three years ago, when holding off favourite Lady Dapple Rose by a length in the 2m 2f handicap hurdle, a second race sponsored by the on-course layers. McPherson and Killahena would also be supporters of the summer programme having fielded over 60 runners and 12 winners on a very respectable 19% strike rate.

The Invades Novices' Chase produced a weak field and not much of a contest, with the result clear cut bar a fall at the last some way out. Shane Quinlan pushed the Andrew Martin - trained Glance At Me into the lead two out, and 7/4 favourite Applejack Lad was no match, the distances 5l and 11l with Matt Sheppard's Blackijo Dagrostis pulled up before the last. It didn't seem to dampen the spirits of a large crowd of young spectators enjoying their first experience of Stratford.

No meeting here would be complete nowadays without a winner for Dan Skelton's Lodge Hill winner machine. The man who has valid ambitions to beat Martin Pipe's seasonal record of 243 winners, remains on course after his fastest century ever. Heidi Palin did the honours here on Ashdown Forest in a lady amateur riders hurdle, the final leg of a cross-card treble to include winners at Newton Abbot.