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YOU would have thought that the weekend before the Cheltenham Festival the action this afternoon would be rather low-key, but there are some cracking bets up and down the country especially at Sandown Park and on the level at Wolverhampton on the all-weather Tapeta surface.

Let’s start at the Esher track where the big betting race will be 16-runner Imperial Handicap Hurdle at 2.25 with the layers likely to offer at least 5/1 the field. The Ben Pauling trained Jipcot is right up there at the top of the market place following an easy win at Huntingdon last time out off a mark of 117. However, I think that race fell apart around him and a 7lbs penalty does seem rather harsh when you consider this is a big step up in class in a much bigger field of runners with much more strength in depth.

So where does the value lie? Well with the ground set to dry out a bit more, despite hardly spring time temperatures in the region, Bad must have claims following his strong running second last time out, but I’m not sure that this stiff uphill finish will be his cup of tea. He looked all over the winner turning for home, but he still travels quite freely and he cannot afford to do that here.