In-form Harry Derham is targeting the Betfair Hurdle with former smart Flat performer Brentford Hope.

Third in the Gerry Feilden to Hansard last time out, Derham has kept his powder dry, resisting the temptation to run the seven-year-old at Christmas.

Brentford Hope is one of 33 left in contention for the valuable contest, for which the sponsors make Nicky Henderson’s Luccia their 7-1 favourite with Brentford Hope a 10-1 chance.

“The Betfair Hurdle is very much the plan for Brentford Hope, we’ve had it in the back of our minds all season,” said Derham.

“Obviously, he has run very well around Newbury previously, we were thinking about running him at Christmas, but we decided to keep him fresh.

“These big handicaps take a lot of winning, we wanted to have him as fresh and well and in as good a form as possible going into a race like this.

“He’s training well, he’s got a few strong pieces of work to go between now and then, but we are very much planning to go and very much looking forward to it.”

Kerry Lee’s Nemean Lion is at the head of the weights, while Willie Mullins has left in Ocastle des Mottes, Alvaniy and Onlyamatteroftime.

Harry Derham is eager to see further progress from Brentford Hope when he lines up in the Coral Bet Bundles Intermediate Handicap Hurdle at Newbury on Saturday.

A useful operator in both codes for Richard Hughes previously, he has won three times in just four starts for his new handler, with Derham having seemingly found the key to unlock the talented six-year-old’s full potential.

He returned with an emphatic 16-length success over the Gerry Feilden course and distance earlier this month and having been raised 11lb by the handicapper, now faces the toughest jumping assignment of his career as he takes on Nicky Henderson’s big-race fancy Under Control.

Also a track-and-trip scorer and a winner of four of her five career appearances, the unexposed four-year-old comes with a fearsome reputation in a race Henderson has won three times in the last four years and Derham concedes Brentford Hope’s task would be much simpler without Under Control’s presence.

“I think Under Control is pretty hard to ignore and her form looks pretty good to me, I would much rather she wasn’t in the race,” said Derham.

“She’s obviously a course-and-distance winner too, but I’m very pleased with Brentford Hope. He will have improved for that last run but he would have needed to.

“He’s a good horse and he looks to me like he has improved this season. It was nice to see what he did at Newbury, although maybe he won a bit too far.

“He’s a good horse but Saturday will be a really big test for him so he will have needed to improve.

“I wouldn’t have minded the ground to be a little bit wetter to be honest. I would have loved it to have been a bit slower and it looks like it has dried up quite a lot this week, but he will take his chance and hopefully he will run a big race.”