EBF Betfair Novices’ Handicap Hurdle Final – Sandown Park – Saturday 8th March

Saturday’s Sandown Park card is always an excellent meeting and often provides punters with a quality warm-up for the ensuing blitzkrieg next week – indeed there is one race on the card which, year in year out, is as target-centric as any race at the Cheltenham Festival.

The EBF Betfair ‘National Hunt’ Novices’ Handicap Hurdle Final at Sandown Park at 1.50 is a race that connections invariably map out a route to, often from the very start of their horse’s novice campaign. This year is no different, and there are so many horses of interest, if not for the race itself but for their future endeavours.

The favourite should and probably will be Paul Nicholl’s Belliano, after he won a qualifier impressively in a good time at Market Rasen last month. As a best priced 4/1 currently, he will probably be available at similar following declarations and for extra places, so if you fancy him, then it may be best to exercise patience.

If you fancy him, then you also must be interested in the price about the horse that acquitted himself with real credit when chasing Belliano home at Market Rasen. At 25/1 each-way with Bet365 or Ladbrokes, Silver Thorn is very much worth the first of two 1-star * ante-post recommendations for the race.

Beaten 3¼ lengths by Belliano, it will take a slightly better performance to turn around that form, but there are reasons for hope on that score, and the price differential is simply too big. Silver Thorn will appreciate the big field scenario perhaps a little more so than Belliano, who enjoyed himself out front at Market Rasen, and for those that like that sort of thing, there is a decent turn around in the weights.

Before that, Silver Thorn had run very well behind the likes of genuine Graded novice hurdlers The New Lion and Moon Rocket, without being at full throttle you feel. 25/1 available now is just too generous to ignore.

Also way too generous to pass over is the 33/1 each-way with Ladbrokes or Coral about Neil Mulholland’s Elysian Knight, who has the look a horse expertly campaigned, placed and prepared by one of the best target trainers around.

Having caught the eye at Plumpton on hurdle debut, he then effortlessly won a maiden hurdle at Ffos Las that has worked out extremely well, before going on to qualify with another eye-catching run at Fakenham, a track that simply wasn’t suitable for this big galloping type.

The handicapper certainly hasn’t over-valued the merits of his form, and the 33/1 about Elysian Knight at a track that will play right to his strengths, is just about the best value bet you may find all this week or next in my view.

For reference, I would be happy to back both Silver Thorn and Elysian Knight at anything 12/1+ at this stage and also wouldn’t put anyone off the 50/1 about Chris Gordon’s Illegal D’Ainay if you were the type of punter happy to have three ante-post bets at this stage.