DISCERNING backers seeking a solid each-way alternative to the favourite in the Lanzarote Hurdle at Kempton need look no further than Green Tango (3.25).

At he head of the market for the £50,000 showpiece, Martin Pipe's multiple winner Royal Hector is ludicrously short-priced at around 3-1, but Green Tango is as long as 12-1 with some of the leading layers.

Admittedly Royal Hector has done nothing wrong by reeling off his last five races, so as a result he's shot up a staggering 34lbs in just over one month and as sure as eggs are eggs, that sparkling sequence has got to stop somewhere.

Green Tango enjoyed a similarly rich vein of form by scoring four times last term, also rising significantly in the weights as the season progressed.

But anyone foolish enough to think he'd reached his peak got it all wrong when Henry Daly's six-year-old blitzed a decent field into total submission at Newbury in November.

Daly then opted to take his charge to Sandown where he simply couldn't sustain his effort on the notoriously steep uphill climb to the line.

In addition, the sticky underfoot conditions ground were all against Green Tango, who will be far more at home on today's much quicker surface, plus infinitely less demanding and far flatter course.

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