There are three potential winners of Saturday’s Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown Park in my book.
Sprinter Sacre, Sanctuaire or ‘Jack Frost’.
Let’s hope it’s not Mr Frost who has already played havoc with the racing schedules this week.
Sandown Park have taken every precaution possible to ensure their prestigious card goes ahead, including frost covers being deployed around the Esher track.
The Tingle Creek match-up between Sprinter Sacre and Sanctuaire is a pre-Christmas present for race fans as the star two milers from last season are set to do battle again around Sandown Park and the relentless and unforgiving railway fences.
On official BHA ratings the pair are rated only 3lb apart, with Nicky Henderson’s Arkle winner Sprinter Sacre just ahead of the Paul Nicholls-trained Sanctuaire.
The BETDAQ betting (below) shows a bigger differential with Sprinter Sacre likely to be sent off odds-on and Sanctuaire clear second favourite.
With due deference to the remaining five runners – this really does look to the match that has been billed and the pair are a full 16lb clear of their nearest rival on official ratings.
The race also sees a fascinating early skirmish between Messrs Henderson and Nicholls in the trainers championship battle (based on prize money) for which Henderson is the early season favourite with his higher profile ammunition.
That of course includes Sprinter Sacre who by-passed the Shloer Chase at Cheltenham at the recent Open meeting and he is a worthy favourite in my book.
His novice chasing career, which saw him win five out of five, was exemplary. You can’t pick a single fault in his sequence which saw him start at odds-on in all five of his starts except for his second win over fences at Kempton in the Wayward Lad Novices Chase when he was sent off second favourite and duly beat Peddlers Cross by 16 lengths. Not a bad performance to beat a horse so easily who had finished second in the Champion Hurdle earlier in the year.
Sprinter Sacre’s star moment of last season also came of course at the Festival when he was sent off the 8/11 favourite for the Arkle and was hugely impressive in beating Cue Card in seven lengths.
Every day I look for flaws in horses – especially in the case of odds-on favourites but I simply can’t find them in the case of Sprinter Sacre.
The only angle, and it’s not Sprinter Sacre’s fault, is that he is untried at Sandown whilst chief rival Sanctuaire won twice here last season – making all the running to win by wide margins on both occasions and crucially getting into a good rhythm with his jumping on what can be a tricky track.
He has been revitalised since switching to chases but I suspect that Sprinter Sacre will have too much class for him on Saturday.
The odds, for once, look spot on. I’m with SPRINTER SACRE.
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