Kilcrea Kim can be a hero at Sandown

Medermit

Some of the main events may be short of betting potential but there is always something to fall back on for a Saturday.

The totescoop6 Heroes Handicap Hurdle at Sandown Park has 20 runners but a number of them look relatively exposed at this stage of their careers. That cannot be said of Kilcrea Kim.

The six-year-old has made rapid progress from running in his first point-to-point in Ireland just 11 months ago. He finished third that day, won his next start and then joined the Philip Hobbs yard.

Kilcrea Kim won his first three starts over hurdles for Hobbs and had more in hand than the neck verdict suggests when winning on his handicap debut at Ffos Las in November over this distance. He ran too free for his own good when stepped up to three miles at Cheltenham last month and just did not see out the trip, so this race may be ideal.

Khachaturian ran well for a long way behind stable companion Ballabrigs – until a bad mistake two out – at the Cheltenham Festival and could be well weighted for the totesport Masters Handicap Chase.

Medermit may have a mind of his own – as he proved when he refused at Huntingdon in November – but he represents the best form in the Grade One totepool Challengers Novices' Chase.

Rated 164 at his best over hurdles, Medermit has won at Plumpton since his antics at Huntingdon and his most recent run, beaten three-quarters of a length by Hell’s Bay in the Grade Two Dipper Novices’ Chase at Cheltenham five weeks ago, looks solid form.

Nicky Henderson’s pair of crack hurdlers, Binocular and Oscar Whisky, have seen off much of the opposition in the totesport Contenders Hurdle and the William Hill Welsh Champion Hurdle at Ffos Las and should have little trouble collecting.

Paul Wheeler

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