Geraghty expects Yanworth to improve

Barry Geraghty expects Yanworth to improve for his Kingwell Hurdle win at Wincanton and feels he is right in the mix for next month's Stan James Champion Hurdle.

Geraghty faces the difficult choice between Alan King's Yanworth, who has only lost once over hurdles, and Buveur D'Air, who began the season novice chasing.

The pair are first and second favourite for the March 14 feature and Geraghty is not likely to make his choice between the JP McManus-owned stars for some time yet.

"I was happy with the performance that Yanworth put up to win the Kingwell Hurdle at Wincanton on Saturday," Geraghty told his At The Races blog.

"Yanworth jumped better in his first-time cheekpieces than he had jumped at Kempton in the Christmas Hurdle. The track didn't play to his strengths on Saturday, and we didn't exactly go hard from early, which wasn't ideal. He had to battle to win, but he battled well.

"He should come on a fair bit for the run. Alan was happy that he would come on for it, and he gave a nice blow at the back of the second last flight.

"I always thought that we were going to get there, I was asking him to improve but I wasn't fully committed until after we jumped the last, and he was going away at the line.

"He's still bang there in the mix for the Champion Hurdle."