Blanco To Lead The Baker’s Dozen

This weekend is all about getting a bit of money in the bag for the Cheltenham Festival and hopefully the Imperial Cup can give us a decent priced winner to get the biggest betting week of the year off to a good start.

Blanco To Lead The Baker’s Dozen
Kayf Blanco goes into the Imperial Cup facing a smaller field than usual for this race and although the eight-year-old may be vulnerable to a few younger, more progressive rivals, this looks a race that Kayf Blanco is capable of landing.

At big prices, Kayf Blanco has outrun his odds behind a couple of fancied horses for next week’s Cheltenham Festival, his last run seeing him beaten 13-lengths by Ballyandy and earlier in the season he was just over four lengths behind Brain Power.

The handicapper dropped him a pound for finishing fifth last time out but that was a race that saw Ballyandy and Movewiththetimes prove to be a cut above the rest and the rest of the field was left reeling.

For this assignment, Kayf Blanco is a 10/1 shot that doesn’t have to worry about meeting anything of the calibre of those two or anything near Brain Power.

There’s no doubt that Brain Power is an improver, but again, given the company in this Imperial Cup, Kayf Blanco’s run behind him at Sandown was quite encouraging and hopefully he can benefit here by landing this lucrative pot.

Blackmore To Notch Up Another One
Rachael Blackmore currently leads the way in the race to be Ireland’s champion conditional jockey this season but under a silly rule isn’t allowed to ride in the Conditional Jockeys’ race next week at the Cheltenham Festival.

However, she can continue her hot run of form of late and that pursuit of the championship by winning the Holden Plant Rentals Shamrock Handicap Chase at Gowran Park.

Samanntom is hardly a model of consistency but he has just 10st on his back and is running off a rating just 1lb higher than when he won at Clonmel last month.

An attempt to exploit a lower handicap mark didn’t go according to plan last time out but he is a better horse over fences. Although the Willie Mullins-trained New Kid In Town is going to prove very hard to beat taking a drop in class, Samanntom can hopefully cause a bit of an upset for Aidan Fogarty.

Recommended Bets:
Kayf Blanco (10/1) – 3:00 Sandown
Samanntom – 3:40 Gowran Park

*Prices correct at time of publication