Darkness showed plenty of promise despite looking green on his hurdling debut, and should have far too much power for these rivals; of the remainder, Donna's Double is fancied to chase him home. The latter, a decent flat horse in his day, made a somewhat belated hurdling debut at the age of nine this year. However, he has shown encouragement in both runs over timber so far and should be good enough for a place at least. Resplendent Star and Beaugency have also shown some ability so far, while Ryhall had shown signs of ability in bumpers and shaped at Newcastle last time as though he were getting the hang of things over timber. But none of these would appear to have the ability to trouble Darkness, who looks a rock soild banker for the getting out stakes. Charlie Egerton's five-year-old looked good in both of his bumper races, winning the second of them at Plumpton. He then looked likely to win on his hurdles debut at Windsor before arguably throwing it away by hanging to his left in the closing stages. That could be down to inexperience, and with the third horse finishing a long way behind, that form alone should be good enough to win this, and with improvement virtually guaranteed, Darkness should not be opposed.
