It’s the final day of the jumps season at Sandown Park on Saturday afternoon and the race to be crowned champion trainer will come to a thrilling end, as Willie Mullins and Dan Skelton roll the dice for the final time.
Amongst the biggest of prizes is the bet365 Gold Cup, with almost £100,000 for the winner. With 48 hours to run in the season, Skelton led the title race by just £24,562 and this race could be the one that splits the title rivals.
Mullins has left absolutely nothing to chance, with 10 potential runners, including leading contenders High Class Hero, Captain Cody and Dancing City, while Skelton counts on lone contender Hoe Joly Smoke.
We’ve got a selection and next best for the bet365 Gold Cup at Sandown on Saturday, with the race due off at 4.10pm, live on ITV Racing.
Mullins not messing around
Just over £98k will go to the winner of this contest, the second to last race on the Sandown card and perhaps the major ‘swing state’ race in the trainers’ championship duel between Mullins and Skelton.
The Irishman has once more poured his reserves into the battle across the closing weeks of the season.
With Jonbon casting a long shadow on the preceding bet365 Celebration Chase – which also carries close to £100k and sees Mullins and Skelton run two apiece – the Closutton powerhouse has decided to flex his muscles in this handicap that he won a year ago with Minella Cocooner.
He’s rated 4lb higher now and will join stablemates Grangeclare West, Dancing City, High Class Hero, Lombron, Olympic Man, O’Moore Park, Spanish Harlem, Chosen Witness and Klarc Kent in giving Mullins half of the 20-runner field.
Skelton, meanwhile, relies on the seven-year-old Holy Joe Smoke, a slender winner over three miles at this track in March in a low-grade contest and now racing from 12lb out of the handicap as he takes a major jump up in class, as well as trip.
Rinse and repeat for Minella Cocooner
Spring is the time to catch MINELLA COCOONER, as he showed when getting up narrowly to win this race under Danny Mullins last year as his uncle became the first Irish-based handler in eight decades to be crowned Britain’s champion trainer.
Now he looks all set to do it again after a late charge that included the one-two-three in the Grand National at Aintree allowed him to increase the pressure on Dan Skelton, the long-time championship leader.
Minella Cocooner was behind stablemate Grangeclare West (third) that afternoon at Aintree but he’s better off at the weights now and returns to the scene of his biggest win.
He tackled three Grade 1s in Ireland this season before running well behind Aintree hero Nick Rockett in the Bobbyjo at Fairyhouse and then acquitting himself well in the National.
He’s back at Sandown rated just 4lb higher than when inching out Annual Invictus last season and can retain his crown – like his trainer!
Victtorino to show up for Williams
Clearly, there is a major chance the Mullins battalion will dominate this race and the likes of Dancing City, Grangeclare West and High Class Hero are respected but perhaps the Venetia Williams and Charlie Deutsch axis can throw a spanner in the works with VICTTORINO.
Williams and Deutsch are no strangers to big-race Sandown success and Victtorino is surely better than what he showed in the Ultima Handicap Chase at Cheltenham last month.
He had bagged back-to-back wins at Ascot over three miles in major handicaps prior to that, outstaying today’s rival Threeunderthrufive in the Swinley Handicap Chase for the second of them in February.
He’s only 1lb worse off with Paul Nicholls’ runner now, with Threeunderthrufive pulled up in the National at Aintree three weeks ago and, yet, much shorter in the betting for this race than Victtorino.
He will have to prove his stamina at this three-and-a-half-mile trip but Victtorino is worth a try and the forecast good ground is in his favour. He’s only seven and remains with time very much on his side.
