Cyrus Darius

Cyrus Darius ran a lot better than the bare form of the run suggests in the Champion Hurdle Trial at Haydock last Saturday.

Settled out the back of the five-runner field early on, he was slightly hampered with Irving fell in front of him at the first flight down the back straight, but he was quickly back on an even keel. His jumping was good, especially considering that this was his first run back after a long break, and he travelled well into the home straight up on the outside of L’Ami Serge. He just got a little left behind when they quickened on the run to the third last flight as lack of a recent run appeared to take its toll on the ground, and Brian Hughes was not hard on him once it was obvious that he couldn’t win. He was well beaten in the end, but he just coasted home from there.

It is significant that, although Malcolm Jefferson’s horse was strong in the market in the morning, he was very weak in the pre-race market. He was a talented performer two seasons ago, he won his three novice hurdles races, his season culminating in a 10-length victory in the Grade 2 Top Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree’s Grand National meeting. He only scraped home at long odds-on on his seasonal return in September last season in a novices’ chase at Perth when he lost a shoe, and he didn’t run again after that last season.

Saturday’s run was a satisfactory run on his first public appearance since, it was his first run in 485 days. Hopefully he can build on this now, because he is obviously a horse with lots of ability and, although he is eight years old, he is still very lightly-raced.

21^st January 2017