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At Sandown this weekend, there’s the small matter of the Coral Eclipse Festival, which is home to some fine flat racing, including a very competitive handicap on Saturday afternoon.
At 14:25, the Coral Challenge will be run over a mile. This race is not only competitive but valuable, being worth over £50,000 to winning connections, so it’s fair to say that plenty will be having a go.
Coral Challenge Odds
Contents
15 runners are set to go to post for the Coral Challenge this year, and as is often the case, the betting is competitive. Over the last decade or so, there have been some short priced favourites, Montatham at 6/5 in 2020 springs to mind, but this year it’s wide open in the early betting.
Latest Coral Challenge Odds:
Indemnify – 13/2 (7.00)
Perotto – 7/1 (8.00)
Ouzo – 15/2 (8.50)
Sceptic – 9/1 (10.00)
Dutch Decoy – 10/1 (11.00)
Positive – 12/1 (13.00)
Silent Film – 12/1 (13.00)
All other runners – 20/1 (21.00) +
Best odds taken for each horse from a selection of bookmakers, including William Hill, bet365, betfair, Ladbrokes, SkyBet, Betfred, PaddyPower, BetVictor and Unibet.
Top Favourites to Win the Coral Challenge
The favourite when they jump out of the gates on Saturday afternoon will almost certainly come from the following three, all of whom are currently battling it out at the head of the market.
Indemnify
Kieran O’Neill’s runner comes into this race off the back of making a winning seasonal reappearance over course and distance last time out. Despite being off the track for 241 days and not being massively fancied in the betting ahead of that nine-runner affair, the gelding showed that he’s an improved performer. There’s every chance that he can step forward and do better with that under his belt, so don’t be surprised if he runs well here, despite being hit with a 5lb rise in the weights.
Perotto
Experience runner, who comes here having not won for a while, but that leaves him well handicapped, sitting on a mark that is 5lbs below his last winning one.
The way he stayed on over seven furlongs at Ascot in May was eye-catching, while he shouldn’t be judged too harshly for finishing just 10th at the Royal meeting last time out over this trip. After all, this race demands less than that 30-runner bonanza. Not only is he lurking on a potentially dangerous mark, he’s won win from one run at Sandown.
Ouzo
This runner doesn’t look as well handicapped, but the seven-year-old has stacks of form in the book, form that tells us he ought to be capable of getting competitive here. He also ran in the Royal Hunt Cup at Ascot, and he finished four places in front of Perotto, which was a very credible effort given that it was his first run of the campaign. With that under his belt, it’s easy to feel that the mount of Saffie Osborne is primed for a big run here. After all, he’s won here before and has in fact never finished out of the places over course and distance.
Coral Challenge Details
The Coral Challenge is a contest run over a mile. It’s typically run at quite a hot pace as the field is usually on the sizable side of things, while it’s also a race that is often won by the big yards. In fact, the major stables have dominated this event for a few years now.
The recent trends tell us that horses nearer the top of the weights do well, with three of the last four winners being rated 100 or above, while the winner usually comes from those near the top of the betting, with the biggest priced winner in the last six years being 8/1.
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