Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Lord to rule in Imperial contest

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CALL ME LORD can tee up a potential £100,000 bonus bid by winning the Matchbook Imperial Cup at Sandown tomorrow.

The huge cash prize traditiona­lly associated with this race will be won if any successful horse can follow up at the Cheltenham Festival next month.

And in Call Me Lord, trainer Nicky Henderson would appear to have a perfect foil with which to go for the double.

The five-year-old must carry top weight in the Imperial Cup, but he is a pretty resilient animal with a touch of quality.

Yet perhaps the biggest thing going for him is his love of Sandown, which can be a challengin­g old place with the wrong horse.

Call Me Lord is unbeaten in two starts at the Esher venue and looked especially full of himself over this two-mile trip in January when he won a valuable two-mile handicap hurdle by three and a quarter lengths.

Another important factor from that accomplish­ed victory was the fact it was achieved in very deep ground.

That he has no worries about running through mud cannot be downplayed as things are likely to become pretty demanding at Sandown if the forecast is correct.

Call Me Lord’s recent outing in the Kingwell Hurdle at Wincanton, when a solid third to Champion Hurdle contenders Elgin and Ch’tibello, also tends to suggest he is a shade better than a handicappe­r as that was only his fourth start for Henderson since his transfer from France.

Expect his County Hurdle odds to be significan­tly shorter if he does what is expected of him.

There is also plenty of meat on the bone for Flat fans and it could be beneficial to throw a few bob the way of William Haggas’ key runners.

Original Choice can firstly take the sunbets.co.uk Lincoln Trial at Wolverhamp­ton.

The four-year-old gelding won nicely at this track last April - his sole all-weather run - and went on to enjoy a profitable summer.

Original Choice has not run for quite a while, but he won before after a lengthy absence and has a lovely profile for a race like this.

Stablemate Second Thought should also go well in the Lady Wulfruna Stakes.

The four-year-old colt, who finished runner-up to Harry Angel last May, had the time of his life over a mile at Kempton last November when he won a Listed race by half a length from Keystroke.

Second Thought has plenty of boot so this return to seven furlongs will be of little consequenc­e.

Just for good measure, it would be folly to allow the Haggas-trained Dal Harraild to go unbacked in the fasttrack qualifier at Chelmsford.

The five-year-old stayer could be primed for a most productive campaign and is, by quite some distance, the most interestin­g horse in this field. BETTING: 9-2 Satchville Flyer, 5 Malaysian Boleh, 6 Dukes Meadow, 7 Hidden Stash, 8 Stringybar­k Creek, Tasaaboq, Outlaw Torn, 12 Lunar Mist, 14 Others. DOR’S LAW (18) D Ivory 5 9-9 (D) ......................... J Osborn (3) 63 KAFOO (28) M Appleby 5 9-8 ................................ K Lundie (3) 67 MR POTTER (7) R C Guest 5 9-7 (C2) ...................... H Shaw (3) 64 MARAAKIB (14) A Dunn 6 9-7 ...................................... W Cox 57 ALMANACK (28)MarkPattin­son89-7 .................... PBradley 57 HOW’S LUCY (14) J Chapple-Hyam 4 9-3 ..... Abbie Wibrew (7) 63 TOUCH THE CLOUDS (31) W Stone 7 9-3 (CD) ...Joshua Bryan 61 EMBER’S GLOW (3) P McEntee 4 9-2 ................. Nicola Currie 55 OK BY ME (31) I Williams 4 8-13 ..................... Luke Catton (5) 60 ROCKET RONNIE B Pauling 8 8-12 (D6) ............. Finley Marsh 57 EXCELLENT WORLD (11) M Channon 5 8-12Lenka Helmecka (7) 55 BETTING: 4 Mr Potter, 5 How’s Lucy, Dor’s Law, 11-2 Touch The Clouds, 6 Ok By Me, 12 Kafoo, Maraakib, 14 Rocket Ronnie, Almanack, Excellent World, 25 Ember’s Glow. (21) B Millman 4 9-11 ................. W Carson (5) P McEntee 5 9-9 (D2) ........ Nicola Currie (5) (15) D C Griffiths 6 9-7 (D2) ..................... E Greatrex (7) Mike Murphy 4 9-6 (CD2) ................ S W Kelly (12) D Loughnane 4 9-6 (D) ...................... A Kirby (16) A Carson 5 9-6 (D5) .................... D Probert (143) J Eustace 4 9-4 (D) ................ R Tate (22) J Balding 4 9-3 ........................... L Edmunds (3) (51) K Ryan 4 9-0 (D) ................................... K Stott BETTING: 11-4 Bernie’s Boy, 4 Big Lachie, 5 Glory of Paris, Desert Fox, 13-2 Lanjano, 12 Father Mckenzie, 14 Tavener, 16 Curious Fox, Gloriux. (19) S Kirk 9-9 .................... Renato Souza (130) P McBride 9-7 ........................... D Probert (148) Archie Watson 9-5 ........................... E Greatrex (16) M Johnston 9-4 ........... Andrew Breslin (7) (163) R Eddery 9-4 ................. Darragh Keenan (7) (145) P McBride 9-1 Nicola Currie (5) (21) M Tompkins 9-1 (C) ............ J Haynes (16) M Usher 8-6 .......................... R Tate (15) P Evans 8-3 .......... G Malune (5) BETTING: 5-2 Four Fifty Three, 7-2 Reverberat­ion, 5 Casima, 13-2 Arlecchino’s Arc, 8 Miniature Daffodil, 12 Gemologist, 14 Ruby’s Gem, Mandarin Princess, 16 Boniface. MR SCARAMANGA (14) S Dow 4 9-10 ................ T Marquand BIG COUNTRY (147) M Appleby 5 9-9 (BF, C) .............. L Morris PACTOLUS (3) S C Williams 7 9-8 (CD3) ............ Milly Naseb (5) MY TARGET (17) M Wigham 7 9-6 (C) ....................... F Norton DRAGON MALL (22)DMSimcock5­9-5(BF) .......... SDonohoe THIRD TIME LUCKY (26) R Fahey 6 9-4 (CD) .......... T Hamilton CONSTANTIN­O (7) R Fahey 5 9-3 .......................... P Hanagan ORIGINAL CHOICE (161) W Haggas 4 9-3 (BF, C) ..... R L Moore EXAMINER (161) S C Williams 7 9-3 (D) ............. P J McDonald MYTHICAL MADNESS (45) D O’Meara 7 9-0 (CD3) ...... K Stott SWIFT EMPEROR (84) T D Barron 6 8-13 (CD) ........ Ben Curtis ROUGE NUAGE (15) C Allen 8 8-3 (CD) ......................... J Quinn BETTING: 9-4 Original Choice, 11-2 Big Country, 8 Mr Scaramanga, Constantin­o, 10 Swift Emperor, Pactolus, 12 Examiner, Dragon Mall, 14 Others. (143) Rebecca Bastiman 8 9-9 ............... J Hart (16) S C Williams 4 9-7 (BF, CD) .......... P J McDonald (26) K Burke 8 9-6 ........................... C Lee (3) (26) I Williams 4 9-3 ....................... Ben Curtis (26) M Appleby 8 9-2 (BF, CD) .......................... L Morris (5) D Shaw 8 9-2 .............................................. P Mathers (31) D Shaw 5 9-0 ...................................... T Hamilton (47) D Loughnane 4 8-9 ..................... A Mullen (315) Miss N L-Beavis 4 8-9 .................. R Da Silva (5) T Dascombe 8 8-9 (CD3) .... R Kingscote BETTING: 3 Tha’ir, 7-2 Kreb’s Cycle, 4 Maratha, 6 Barnaby Brook, 8 Indian Chief, 10 Georgian Bay, 14 Bounderby, 20 Laqab, 25 Others.

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