STILLETTO romps home

Followers of the blog selections will understand just how frustrated I felt when STILLETTO fell on his previous run - when leading and having the race at his mercy - after he romped home to a good win off the same mark yesterday.  For that previous race we were on at 6/1, and afterwards I wrote that I thought he'd have won that race by 10-lengths, and that's exactly what he did yesterday when he looked an even better horse.

How STILLETTO started at odds of 7/4 is beyond me as I thought he was a slight odds-on chance (there is always the possibility of being brought-down or suffering other interference etc). I hope followers of the blog recouped their losses from the previous race even though I didn;t name him as a selection due to my "no wagers less than 9/4" rule.

Onto today, and the racing at Sandown isn't great as it is "Military" day with the feature race being the Royal Artillery Gold Cup for amateur riders. Unusually, Paul Nicholls does not have a runner in the race.   As such, I'm looking at the 4:20pm race which is also a 3-mile Class 3 handicap chase with 9-runners declared.  Sandown is a tricky place for young chasers learning their trade, and the fav for this race Beg To Differ has not convinced with his jumping so far, and he can be opposed.   I think my alert list runner Loose Chips has had plenty of opportunities to win this season, and he's crept up the weights a little.  He does not look as good as he was last season, but wont be far away. The novice Dancing Shadow looks more interesting as he looks like this trip will suit him as he was a strong finishing 2nd LTO here at Sandown over 2m4f in what looks like an interesting race.  One who has slipped to an interesting rating is BERTIE BORU who runs off OR130 today having been rated OR136 after running 2nd here over C&D in January last year.  He's not had much luck since then, without looking like he's lost any ability, and today's ground and trip will be perfect for him.  Fond Memory would like better ground, and Sands Cove looks held on his current mark of OR127.

All-in-all, BERTIE BORU looks fair value at 7/1 (available generally) for this race, and he's my eachway wager today as I think he should probably be more like 9/2 given the opposition.

Selection
Sandown 4:20pm BERTIE BORU, £5 eachway and £5 win @ 7/1 (available generally, 5th odds a place 1,2,3)