Sandown Park – Friday 3rd December

There was a welcome winner at Clonmel yesterday as my faith was finally rewarded with Gordon Dai Dai, who put in a performance that I have been expecting for a while now for the Willie Burke charge. He quickened up nicely and added to a good run from Big Debates, it was a solid day overall. Sandown takes the centre stage on this occasion, with a good Friday card at the London venue, which serves as a lovely appetizer to the main event tomorrow with the Tingle Creek and Henry VIII Novices Chase. 

I have just the two selections from Sandown this afternoon, starting off with the 1.50 race – which is a novice handicap chase over 2m4f and despite it only attracting a field of six – it doesn’t look an easy contest to decipher. The fact that they go 3/1 the field in such a small field tells you all you need to know about the competition within this race. Halo Des Obeaux and Champagne Well both bring their respective chances and to be honest, one could make a case for any of the six runners in this race. 

However, I will be siding with Bobhopeornohope – who promised a good run after an eye-catching effort at Exeter last time out. Having been pulled up a few times over hurdles due to wind issues, it was very pleasing to see him travel with such zest over the 3m trip at Exeter, only weakening out of things late on. He shaped like the step back down in trip would suit him on that occasion, and I’m excited to see him back in the intermediate trip having dropped a few pounds for his last run. He is off a mark of 124 on this occasion, which I think underestimates his ability and he seems to be quite ground versatile – but has shown a preference for better ground in the past, so this forecast good ground should be of great assistance. At a price of 11/2 with Paddy Power for 2 places, I’ll be backing him each way.

The 2.25 race is the second selection on the card and this 2m4f novice hurdle is the feature race on the card. This Grade 2 race has again attracted a small but select field of five runners to the post, but there are some exciting prospects on show on this occasion and I’m looking forward to seeing who might come out on top. The obvious starting point is Brave Kingdom, who was so impressive last time out at Chepstow on stable debut and looks a cut above the usual type to come from such a race. He travelled sweetly and jumped superbly and is rightly at the top of the market. However, even money looks a skimpy price given some of the opposition he is against on this occasion. 

Top of that list is the exciting Fair Frontiers, who looks like a really impressive purchase for the Kim Bailey team, having been recruited from the Declan Queally stable in Ireland. While trained in Ireland, he finished a neck second to Gars De Sceaux in his maiden hurdle before being sold to current connections. He made his stable debut at Worcester and despite it being a very ordinary race, he could not have been more impressive in winning by 41 lengths. He also showed a tendency to shift right at his hurdles, so going this way round suits the horse even more. I think if he was left alone on the front end, he could gallop these into the ground from the front. At a price of 4/1 with Bet365, he is a fair price to have a crack at the favourite with.