Sandown 3:25 (12 Mar 2005)

Sunderlands Imperial Cup Handicap Hurdle (Class A) (Listed Race) 4yo+

Course Description
An oval right handed, slightly undulating track with an uphill finish. The course presents severe test of a horses jumping ability and favours front-runners who can see out the trip.

Analysis

Selection: Medison (2 pts win), Papillon De Iena (.5 pt each-way)

Given the historical statistics, which indicate that the winner will be either a 5 or 6 year old and was placed last time out plus the strong statistics for Martin Pipe (3 wins, 2 seconds, a third and fourth from 17 runners) I have selected horses from his stable.

The selection of Medison was easy (maybe too easy) in that he has all the ticks in the right boxes. The selection of Papillon De Iena is driven by 3 factors. The first one is a hint from Mark Cottons Book “100 Hints for Better Betting”

Hint 23: Play close attention to the stables Second String

I fell foul of this hint when I couldn’t decide between the Godolphin runners; Kheleyf and Byron (16/1 winner) in last years Betfair Cup at Goodwood.

The second is that Sandown is a stamina test and like Cheltenham, horses must make every yard of the trip. Papillon De Iena is dropping back in trip after a recent run over 2m6f (3rd).

The third. At predicted odds of 33/1 and 20 runners, Papillon De Iena has got to be worth an each-way punt at small ish stakes.

Martin Pipe’s third string Visibility is not well handicapped and so can be ignored from calculations.