Olly Murphy sends one for this contest with Thomas Darby, the ten-year-old gelding being his pick. An experienced hurdler who won at the likes of Cheltenham, Ascot and Newbury over hurdles, is less experienced over fences, having just three runs over the larger obstacles in his career.
Two of those came in 2019, where he finished second at Warwick and third at Kempton before returning over fences at Ayr this year, beating 5/6fav Gold Cup Bailly by just over a length to claim class three handicap success.
This is tougher and he is up five lbs from that victory here, against some very good chasers.