Zarkandar ready for Newbury reappearance

LEADING Stan James Champion Hurdle hope Zarkandar will make his belated seasonal debut at Newbury on Saturday if the meeting gets the go-ahead.

The Paul Nicholls-trained five-year-old figures among a field of 22 declared for the Betfair Hurdle, in which he could clash with the impressive Nicky Henderson-trained novice Darlan.

Zarkandar is a general 7-1 chance for the Champion Hurdle despite not being seen since winning at Aintree in April.

He heads the betting for Saturday's race at as low as 11-4. Nicholls has declared three including top-weight Brampour.

Henderson also has three with Soldatino and Erict ready to join Darlan.

Sailors Warn, who was as short as 16-1 in places, was the most notable absentee at Thursday's declaration stage.     

Punters continued to be of the opinion that Saturday's meeting will be off with themoney all going one way on Thursday morning. By 1pm the Betfair market made it 4-6 that the meeting will be off and 11-10 that it will go ahead as scheduled.