Sandown

2.20pm

Dame De Compagnie

All the big guns from the five-day stage have stood their ground here, and it is a red-hot race. With the possible exception of Up The Straight, I a imagine connections of all the runners will come here in the expectation of winning, or at least going very close, and why wouldn’t they with the likes of Shan Blue and Messire Des Obeaux on show, to name just two of them. We obviously like our mare too, and I was thrilled with her on her chasing debut at Ayr last month. Okay, it was only a match but the other horse was Cornerstone Lad, a Fighting Fifth winner, and she was very impressive in taking care of him. She is a Cheltenham Festival winner getting the mares allowance, so of course we expect a big run, but we are under no illusions of what task she faces after just the one chase start. This race wouldn’t look out of place at Cheltenham next month.

2.55pm

Champagne Mystery

It was obviously too early to tell what would have happened when he fell at Cheltenham in December and this will be the deepest ground he has raced on since coming out of points. But he won on soft for me at Aintree two seasons ago, following up with a good second behind Dashel Drasher at Haydock, and he looks to be on a fair mark on those pieces of form, and his run behind Greaneteen at Fakenham last year, too. If he handles the conditions then he has his chance in a competitive handicap.