Simonsig wins Mersey Hurdle Simonsig followed up his Cheltenham win with a facile success in the John Smith's Mersey Novices' Hurdle at Aintree. Nicky Henderson's talented grey (4-9 fav) tracked the leaders throughout and although he made a couple of jumping errors, including the second-last, he wasn't hard pressed to win under Barry Geraghty. A distant second was Donald McCain's Super Duty (7-1) who ran well from the front, whilst Lucy Wadham's mare Baby Shine (12-1) also performed with credit back in third. Philip Hobb's Colour Squadron was still in with every chance when taking a crashing fall at the third-last hurdle, whilst eventual runner-up Super Duty made a bad error two from home but somehow managed to stay on his feet. Flycorn ran on best of the rest to finish fourth under Paul Townend. Henderson said: "He could be good. He's always looked the part all year. At Sandown he got beat by Fingal Bay, but it looked as though we were going to run all over him at the second-last. "After that we put him away and started again, and he's been so good. "He's done his bit now and that's probably the last time we'll see him over hurdles. "Barry thinks it's time to go over fences. He sees this trip out well, but I'd have thought we'll start off over fences over two miles to just let him go and jump. "We've got decisions to make with him and Darlan now." Geraghty said: "He's as good as he looks. He hosed up there. He did everything so easily and they were probably going too slow for him. "He missed one or two and I didn't want to set sail too early. He really wants a fence. He jumped hurdles well, but he can be a little bit careless." Paddy Power make the grey 3-1 favourite from 4-1 for the Arkle Trophy at Cheltenham next March. William Hill are 8-1 about him winning the RSA Chase.
