Cyrus Darius

So excited by this horse for next year.

I'm on. 16/1.

Bar Many Clouds and possibly Don Cossack, it was the performance of the meeting for me, looks assured to have a big future over fences.
One minor worry about your bet MC, is that a likely campaign in the North could see him coming into the Festival with an exploitable mark. Jeffo likes to win a cap and so might look at the Grand Annual rather than the Arkle.

That's a good point mate. Hoping he knows this one is potentially right out of the top drawer.

This horse is now one of the "in" crowd, the handicapper won't be leaving this one short.

Well, he wasn't particularly harshly treated for the Aintree romp, with 153. Which puts him a pound behind Shaneshill and the same as l'Ami Serge - I'd fancy him to beat both in 2 mile hurdle off levels. Taking on Douvan over fences could be a different matter, however, if that one takes well to the game he will be very hard to beat.

Great news to see he has an entry in the Champion Hurdle trial at Haydock on Saturday. Obviously don't expect too much after such a long absence but would love to see Malcolm Jefferson with another Cheltenham contender (am thinking Coral Cup rather than Champion Hurdle though).

Early indications are that Mount Mews and Cloudy Dream are n't quite top class (although there was no disgrace in Cloudy Dream's run behind Buveur D'Air giving him weight).

The impression Cyrus Darius made at Aintree in 2015 still lingers in the memory.

So anyway, he won the Morebattle today beating the 139 rated One For Harry 7 lengths so I don't think he can go up too much from 145 (although visually he was perhaps value for more than 7 lengths).

I don't know what would have happened if Born Survivor had stood up but this was a step forward from his Haydock run.

He's a fine, big unit.

I am still thinking Coral Cup.

He would surely have beaten Born Survivor ( as the official handicapper said he would) but that does not make him a CH horse even in  a bad year. Might he run in a handicap chase?