Imperial Cup
The Imperial Cup at Sandown on Saturday provides a last piece of important racing before the start of the Cheltenham Festival.
The race takes places over about two miles incorporating eight hurdles and is usually a very close affair.
This year has seen plenty of interest in the race with lots of news filtering in with regard to the fancied runners and riders. The first bit of information that shocked punters was the withdrawal of early ante post favourite Aegean Dawn.
Those looking to get free bets note how the Nicky Henderson-trained horse was top-priced at 7/2 for victory when Henderson announced that he would not run at either Sandown or at Cheltenham the following week. The yard declared that the horse was well but not schooling well and as a result would not run whilst they looked into the issue.
The race took another twist when trainer Gary Morre stated that his twp well-liked runners, Sire De Grugy and Via Galilei, were unlikely to battle each other in the race. Ground conditions at Sandown are currently described as good, good to soft in places. With Sire De Grugy only likely to run in soft conditions and Via Galilei looking for good conditions they are not scheduled to meet. Punters should be well aware of this before taking a plunge on the tempting ante post markets.
Meanwhile, David Pipe appears to have his sights on another victory in the race with two strong contenders in Arrayan and Ronaldo Des Mottes both in with a shout. Pipe has won the race before with Gaspara in 2007 and Ashkazar in 2008 and punters will be well advised to bear this in mind.
