Who To Follow At Sandown On Saturday - 11/03/23

James Mackie | @jamesmackieee

Fri 10 Mar 2023 15.59

Sandown 13:50

Etalon

J: Harry Skelton

T: Dan Skelton

N/A

Age: 6

Weight: 11-1

OR: 119

Days: 44

One of the big races from Sandown is the Grade Three Novices' Hurdle Handicap Hurdle Final and we like the look of the Dan Skelton trained Etalon.

Sent hurdling in November at Warwick when second to a nice type in Gunnery Officer, he then went to Aintree and again settled for second, chasing home the very talented Strong Leader for Olly Murphy.

Strong Leader franked the form and so did Etalon getting off the mark for his career at Wetherby last time out in a 17 runner Novices' Hurdle, bolting up by seven lengths.

Making his Handicap debut on Saturday off a mark of 129 looks lenient, especially with the ground conditions set to suit this improving gelding.

Form: 3221View

Date	Course	Distance	Type	Weight	Position
26/01/23	WET	16	Sft	11-2	1
03/12/22	AIN	17	GS	11-0	2
01/11/22	WAR	19	GS	11-0	2
04/02/22	CHP	16	Sft	11-2	3

Venetia Williams sends a decent team to Sandown on Saturday with a lot of her horses getting their perfect heavy ground conditions.

In the opener Jikala is having his second start over hurdles but on debut last time out shaped well at Hereford on soft ground and should improve on that effort.

Her next runner comes in the Imperial Cup with Djelo who was very exciting at the start of the season needs to now recapture his form but can do that on softer ground.

One of the yards best chances of the afternoon comes in the Grade Three Handicap Chase over 2m4f with Easy As That looking to make it a hat-trick of wins.

Williams also has the favourite in the penultimate race of the afternoon with Flowing Cadenza another seeking a hat-trick and she adores soft ground.

The yard finish the day with a runner in the last, Prevaricate who needs to bounce back at a price.

Harry Skelton will look to head into the Cheltenham festival in frightening form as he has some big chances across the afternoon at Sandown on Saturday.

His first ride of the afternoon comes in the Grade Three Novices' Handicap Hurdle Final over 2m4f and Etalon was highly impressive last time out and should improve again on handicap debut.

In the Imperial Cup he rides the favourite Playful Saint who has some strong form this term and still only rated 135 could go close.

Skelton then rides Lac De Constance in the Grade Three Handicap Chase with this horse underperforming this term but a return to softer ground will be the making of him.

Skelton heads into the weekend currently running at a strike rate of 18% for the last two weeks, managing to land four winners from 22 runners.