26th-Nov-2021

I am against Paisley Park here, I just don’t think he is the horse that he used to be. Mrs Milner was my starting point, but it looks like she was everybody else’s starting point too. It would be great to see her win this, but she is popular and she is short.

Old friend Indefatigable was tempting, as was Lisnagar Oscar, but, at the prices, I think that Thomas Darby is the value of the race.

We were against him at a shortish price in the West Yorkshire Hurdle at Wetherby last time, but he was popular then, and he was short. A lot of the worries about him going into the Wetherby race are still there today, as in, he is a horse who doesn’t find an awful lot off the bridle. But he wears a tongue-tie for the first time today and, if that has the desired effect, he could run a big race.

He is a classy individual, he finished second in a Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and he won a Holloway’s Handicap Hurdle at Ascot off a mark of 151 and under top weight, giving 7lb to Song For Someone. And he stayed three miles well at Aintree in April, when he finished third in the Liverpool Hurdle, but he is still unexposed at the trip. Sean Bowen rides him for the second time today too, after riding him for the first time at Wetherby last time, which is another positive.

THOMAS DARBY WON (ADV 13/2, SP 7/1)