2.50pm Sandown Tips & Betting Preview 22/08/2015

Race Time: 2.50pm Meeting: Sandown Distance: 1m 2f 7yds
Full Race Name: Kalaglow Handicap Class Two

Half our original suggestions have either been pulled out or sent elsewhere, but that doesn’t make this any less interesting to solve or any easier (sadly). We have backed or looked at Basateen (8/1) before this season with his better than average two year old form followed by a frankly disappointing three year old campaign to date that has been made up of an eighth of eighteen here over a mile followed by a fifth of eleven to multiple winner Rembrandt Van Rijn at Haydock, neither of which exactly caught the eye. He does sport first time out blinkers today and who knows if they will have the desired effect but the fact is, he is overpriced on his best form, but sadly so far it appears that he cannot be guaranteed to repeat it. The only other three year old we may seriously consider would be the Sir Michael Stoute trained Exosphere (8/1), a highly regarded son of Beat Hollow who looked to be going the right way with wins at Lingfield and Doncaster before coming unstuck on a softer surface at Doncaster when only fourth to Great Park so his chances do seem to revolve around the going and if the word soft appears in the official description, we won’t be backing him (and we doubt he even runs), though on good to firm we would have a very different view! Flag War (12/1) also catches the eye for Godolphin with jockey Kevin Stott taking a useful three pounds off of the four year old’s back. Two wins from three races this season make good reading, but have also seen his rating go up a total of eleven pounds before today and that may well be enough to stop him and we wont be getting involved even though we expect him to run well.

Luca Cumani is never a handler to ignore in this sort of contest, and he looks most likely to run Mount Logan (11/2) here as he looks to follow up his fairly comfortable Goodwood win here off a rating just five pounds higher. He is a bit of a thinker which can worry his supporters, and needed to be rousted along pretty early to hold his place in Sussex and we do wonder if the cut in the ground that day aided his cause, but he is certainly more than capable of shrugging off the added weight if in the mood and depending on his odds is very much a possible each way call. To end with, we are also quite taken with the weight given to Elkaayed (11/1) for Barry Hills who loves a winner here given half a chance. Now a five year old, he won his first race since June 2013 last time out at Doncaster when getting up by a short head at Doncaster but he did show battling qualities that day and with his trainer all things are possible and you write him off at your own risk!