All the right reasons for backing Murphy

13 April 2012

Inclement weather has clean-bowled Sandown 0 for 4 this innings - four meetings scheduled so far this season, all abandoned. With rain forecast last night on ground already described as largely heavy, tomorrow's meeting is hardly striding confidently towards the crease, either.

Clerk of the course Andrew Cooper needs a single figure score in rainfall millimetres overnight to ease his troubles.

The hurdles track is already 'heavy' and, although the chase track is 'soft, heavy in places', the area around the Pond Fence may cause that obstacle to be omitted. At worst, it could stop all play.

Everything crossed, then, for the Esher track's first meeting since closing the previous National Hunt season with a rousing renewal of Whitbread Gold Cup day last April.

Sandown attracts specialists. Balletic grace and goatish surefootedness are required to negotiate its notorious quickfire fences. Yet, with well-handicapped Torduff Express heading to Uttoxeter's Singer & Friedlander National Trial tomorrow, the duo of contenders in the Agfa Diamond Handicap with a chase win here make little appeal.

Native Player and The Pickled Duke are quite a way 'wrong' at these weights. The former won from a higher mark over hurdles two years ago, but hasn't progressed as a chaser and is out of sorts this term.

The Pickled Duke is outclassed and makes too many mistakes to play a part in a field of this class at Sandown.

Instead, side with Good Lord Murphy. This nine-year-old has displayed an affinity for Sandown, albeit on the hurdles track, with two victories here as a novice in 1998.

One key attribute to his liking is its right-handed layout as only one of his six career successes has come on a left-handed track.

That Warwick maiden hurdle was easy pickings to a horse of his ability and he's shown a distinct starboard bias since. An abysmal Welsh Grand National effort last December can be dismissed as he was clearly never happy at left-handed Chepstow. It can't have been the ground - Good Lord Murphy relishes a testing surface.

He is better assessed on his two latest Ascot runs, when beating Eau de Cologne (a rival again here), and last season when a narrow second to subsequent Whitbread Gold Cup hero, Beau, with Warwickshire Gold Cup winner, Browjoshy, in third. A mark of 141 looks playable in that context for this progressive nine-year-old.

Eau de Cologne is held on identical terms, particularly given he's better on fast going. The latter also applies to Pennybridge, while stablemate Windross is yet to deliver on his novice-chasing promise. More dangerous are lowly weighted Time Of Flight and Ryalux, the latter hailing from the in-form Micky Hammond stable.

But the Middleham yard that produced Heidi III to win Doncaster's Great Yorkshire Chase last Saturday can gain immediate compensation in the following Tote Scoop6 Sandown Hurdle. Like his host track, the Hammond-trained Patras hasn't raced over jumps since last April, but he's won first time out every season to date.

This seven-year-old is lightly raced and still open to improvement. But he doesn't have much more to find on a mark of 127, having won a decent Newcastle event from only a 4lb lower rating this time last year. Two lacklustre runs at the end of last season came on unfavourably fast ground - he's far more at home on this heavy stuff.

Amateur rider Ben Hitchcott claims 5lb and is booked for the ride, but that shouldn't put anyone off. This young jockey has already marked himself out as a name for the future and Patras has a history of responding well to less experienced riders. Conditional Nathan Horrocks struck up a fruitful partnership with him last term. Chief danger is Ballet-K. This mare was fairly useful on the Flat but looks to be even better over hurdles. She has often kept some pretty dizzy company over the sticks, but handicapping is more her bag. She produced a career-best effort when third to Frosty Canyon (a rival again here) at Warwick last month and can build on that.

The winner is vulnerable on these revised terms, although his Bonusprint Stayers' Hurdle entry at the Cheltenham Festival strikes a note of caution.

He promised much in bumpers two seasons ago and is now starting to deliver. If he and Ballet-K are thereabouts in this, then Warwick fourth Springfield Scally won't be far away either.