Sandown today

Of the 5 U.K. meetings today, Sandown has by far the best card. It marks the official end of the N.H. season and the handicap chase over almost 3 3/4 miles at 16.10 CET. now known as the betfred Gold Cup, is the last big jumps race of the season in the U.K. With 20 runners this is wide open, although Le Beau Bai (Richard Lee/ Jamie Moore) is likely to start a warm favourite. The nonstop rain is very much in his favour and he won the Welsh Grand National under these conditions. However he is handicapped to the hilt and in our view is no great value at the likely price. We shall take as our 4 against the field Paul Nicholl´s pair, the talented but moody top-weight Tidal Bay (Daryl Jacob) and the lightly-weighted Aldertune (Nick Scholfield), as well as West End Rocker (Alan King/ Wayne Hutchinson) and Irish hope Vic Venturi (Dessie Hughes/ Jason Maguire), both of whom ran in the Grand National but did not get very far.

The opening 4yo handicap hurdle at 14.30 is another very open race. Sadlers Risk (Philip Hobbs/ Richard Johnson) is the class act here. but has a huge weight. Hardly any of the runners has form on ground as heavy as this, which makes things even more difficult. Hobbs and Johnson have another chance in the following handicap hurdle at 15.00 with German-bred Big Easy, but this is another tough event. The Grade Two Celebration Chase at 15.35 looks between Somersby (Henrietta Knight( Dominic Elsworth) and Wishfull Thinking (Hobbs/ Johnson) but we also fancy French Opera (Nicky Henderson/ Andrew Tinkler), who won the race last year.

The rest of the card consists of 4 flat races, including two group races. Poet (Clive Cox/ Ryan Moore) has been heavily backed for the Gordon Richards Stakes at 16.45 on the grounds that he will handle the heavy going best, and this might well be the case. The Classic Trial at 17.15 is tricky and any of the 4 runners could win it.