I must admit Darlan was a horse I put a lot of questions marks next to in the run up to last seasons’ festival, before he was eventually touched off in the Supreme by Cinders And Ashes and consequently won well at Aintree. He looked good in these two runs and was absolutely tanking before taking a bad fall in the Betfair Hurdle earlier on at Newbury.
He’s definitely a horse who should be there or thereabouts in March, and given this races’ record of catapulting good horses into the Champion Hurdle picture, he should be well capable of winning this off top weight. Bet365 go a standout 6/1, and supposing he has an incident-free run up to the race, I’d have to say this represents decent value