Darlan leaps into Cheltenham Festival picture with easy Taunton win

Darlan joined a growing collection of horses near the head of the market for the Supreme Novice Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in March when he extended his unbeaten record to four races with victory at Taunton on Monday. Nicky Henderson's five-year-old, who was ridden by Barry Geraghty in place of the injured Tony McCoy, was sent off favourite at 10-11 and tracked a solid pace set by Giordano Bruno, who was running for the first time since finishing third in Aintree's championship bumper in 2009. Giordano Bruno's long absence quickly told in the straight, though, and Darlan made smooth progress to beat Jump City, the second-favourite, by half a length. The bare margin was no measure of Darlan's superiority, however, as Geraghty was motionless on the winner as Ruby Walsh rode furiously on Jump City but without making any impression. "He's done it well but he probably made it look easier than it was," Geraghty said. "He's one of those that you just say 'whoah' and he goes. Jump City has been disappointing and a couple of others would need the run but he still won." Henderson was not at Taunton to pass on his running plans for Darlan but, even if he now goes straight to the Festival, he has shown enough to start as one of the favourites, not least if he is the chosen mount of McCoy, the retained jockey toJ P McManus, Darlan's owner. Darlan was cut to a top price of 14-1 following his win, behind only Steps To Freedom and Waaheb, who are trained in Ireland by Jessica Harrington and Dermot Weld respectively. Sam Waley-Cohen, the amateur jockey who is due to ride Long Run in the Gold Cup at Cheltenham, will miss out on another three days of racing after he was banned for a whip offence. Waley-Cohen had already been banned for a total of 15 days in recent weeks, to be served in January and February on days when there is at least one race restricted to amateur jockeys. He received 12 days when he appeared to ride a finish a circuit too soon at Fakenham in mid-December, and another three for allowing Long Run to hang in on a bend in the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day. Waley-Cohen will now be ruled out on 16, 17 and 19 February as well. "I'm not sure if I'll appeal," he said afterwards, "and I really don't want to comment at the moment." The jockey's frustrating afternoon was not even rewarded with a winner as his efforts on Time For Spring proved futile, as he had been tracked all the way to the final fence by the patiently ridden Made In Time. Will Kennedy, Made In Time's jockey, then pushed his mount out for a comfortable success. Barney Curley, who said recently that he intends to scale down his racing activity in order to concentrate on charity work in Africa, landed a significant gamble on the all-weather at Wolverhampton when Summersturm won at 7-2 having opened at 13-2 in the betting ring and then touched 8-1 in the early exchanges. Summersturm was settled not far off the lead by Micky Fenton and then stayed on well to win by 3¼ lengths. The eight-year-old was recording his first success since taking a minor race at Krefeld in Germany in May 2007 but had dropped to a career-low mark of 48, having raced off as high as 85 in his younger days.