King produces his Christmas cracker
Alan King's hurdler may have been the first off the bridle of the top three but stayed on best to ease past The New One and My Tent Or Yours
YANWORTH ran out an authoritative winner of the 32Red.com Christmas Hurdle at Kempton.
After making a successful reappearance over an intermediate distance in the Coral Hurdle at Ascot last month, connections considered a step up to three miles but he instead reverted to two miles for this Grade One event and was the 5-4 favourite in the hands of Barry Geraghty.
Just as he had done when winning the International Hurdle at Cheltenham a couple of weeks ago, The New One set out to make all the running, with his old foe My Tent Or Yours in his slipstream throughout.
Geraghty was happy to sit in behind aboard the Alan King-trained Yanworth and while his jumping was not always slick, he remained bang in contention rounding the home turn.
The further Yanworth went the better he looked and after hitting the front on the run to the final flight, he pulled clear on the run-in to score by three and a quarter lengths.
The New One was a clear second, with Ch'tibello coming through to beat My Tent Or Yours to third.
Geraghty said: "He battled well. I had to work a little bit before the turn in, but when we straightened up he came alive.
"He was good and accurate at the last. He's learning a lot from last year and physically, he's a good bit stronger.
"It was a good, solid race. The New One and My Tent went a good gallop and there was no place to hide.
"It looks like he's a Champion Hurdle horse. You'd imagine Cheltenham being a stiffer track would suit better.
"He did it well today."
