Darna revives glory days for Bailey Darna sprang a 33-1 surprise to hold off the well-backed Monetaire in the Brown Advisory & Merriebelle Stable Plate at Cheltenham. Trainer Kim Bailey, who saddled the winners of the Gold Cup and Champion Hurdle 20 years ago with Master Oats and Alderbrook, was back on the Festival scoresheet. After a false start, David Pipe's Monetaire was left briefly when the tapes went up and the fact he was only beaten a length and a quarter, it may have proved costly. The Irish raider Rawnaq and Buywise came flying up the hill to claim minor honours. Bailey said: "The owners have had horses with me for a long time and paid a lot of money for him, for us anyway, he cost £100,000. "He's had a lot of problems but we gave him a wind operation and all he wanted was good ground. "I said to David Bass, I'm sorry you're losing the ride on Un Ace (to Tony McCoy) but I do think you'll beat him. "The last time he had good ground he won and Tom Scudamore rode him here last time and was cantering coming down the hill and said if only he could breathe he'd have won, so he had the op the following week." Bass said: "I've come in the past five or six years with chances, but it's never happened and I was starting to think it was never going to happen. This is my last ride (here) this year so it's great. "To be fair to Kim, I wanted to ride Un Ace and AP became available and he said I might be on the right one and you never know, he was flying and would travel. He travelled great and jumped great. This horse has had wind issues and he got up the hill really well, it's brilliant."
