The Weekends Racing – by The Sportsman Racing

The winner of the Imperial Cup would snare a £75,000 bonus if following up in any race at the Cheltenham festival. Imperial Cup jolly, Mr Mole is also disputing favouritism for the Vincent O’Brien County Hurdle next week having won with plenty in hand at Taunton last month. Mr Mole is a horse the Nicholls yard hold in high esteem and the JP McManus owned horse should put up a bold performance. The horse I like against the favourite is David Pipe’s Welsh Champion Hurdle third, Tanerko Emery. Second-guessing from a strong Pipe hand in this race is fraught with danger but the granite-hard Tanerko Emery looks the main player as Pipe Jnr attempts to emulate his father Martin, who landed the bonus three times in days of yore. The sturdy ex-French gelding represents a decent each-way price at 10-1. Pine Creek from the John Ferguson canon is on a nice mark of 130, showing both guts and a turn of foot in his last two contests and holds each-way claims. On the Sabbath, Spirit Of Shankly can land the Class4 Novices Hurdle at Market Rasen. One of Charlie Longsdon’s best bumper horses last season, Spirit Of Shankly hasn’t managed to take his excellent homework on to the track yet but still demands respect. Bought for 23,000 euros the Longsdon team will be hoping Spirit Of Shankly can land this before heading to the Grand National meeting at Aintree next month, where he will attempt to score in front of an adopted home crowd.]]>