Bonuses may have joined the list of subjects – headed by s*x, politics and religion – that are not suitable for discussion with your great-aunt Matilda, but the one on offer at Sandown this weekend has to be earned the hard way. You can bank on that.
First there is the small matter of winning a fiercely competitive renewal of the Paddy Power Imperial Cup. But that alone does not get guarantee even a sniff of the £75,000 cheque unless the winner also wins a race at the Cheltenham Festival - and that is certainly not easy money.
It is the sort of task that even Hercules would have swerved and in over 15 years only three horses have managed it. Martin Pipe's Olympian followed up in the Coral Cup in 1993, while Blowing Wind hit the jackpot in County Hurdle five years later for the former champion trainer. And, just to prove that the son could also rise in the West, David Pipe banked his own cheque when Gaspara won the Fred Winter Hurdle in 2007 after landing the Imperial Cup.
However, the Pipe hegemony of the bonus and the Imperial Cup – a race which father and son have won eight times between them - is already over for this year as there will not be a Pipe runner in field after his ante-post favourite Hunterview missed the cut.
But there are 24 who do go to post, 20 of whom are still entered for Cheltenham. It was a close call for Qaspal, who needed six to drop out to even get a run in this race, but he looks capable of following the recent trend of a race where novices have a good record.
There are two ways of looking at his last run, in a two-and-a-half-mile handicap at Sandown last month. Qaspal did his best to scupper his chances by pulling far too hard early on, but still managed to plough through heavy ground to win by two-and-three-quarter lengths so the handicapper may not have got his full measure yet.
Granted he has gone up 14lbs in the ratings but he needed all of that to even get into a race like this and the 5lb penalty he would pick up for winning would be handy if he is to have any chance of a run in either of his two Cheltenham entries; the Vincent O'Brien County Hurdle or the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys' Handicap Hurdle.
The drop to two miles and the guaranteed pace that comes with the hurly burly of a race like the Imperial Cup should suit him just fine and the combination of Philip Hobbs and Tony McCoy – primarily for JP McManus-owned horses – stands at a very promising strike-rate of 31%.
Paul Nicholls and Nicky Henderson are both preparing strong teams for the Cheltenham Festival but can still pick up prizes here. Meanus Dandy has not been an instant success for Nicholls this season in three runs in novice chase. But that means that this useful pointer could now be on a handy mark for the paddypower.com Handicap Chase.
Henderson’s hurdlers have a 45% strike-rate at Sandown this season and Ranjobaie can add to that in the EBF Paddy Power Novices' Hurdle. Ranjobaie was a good winner at Market Rasen last month and the form has worked out very well as the runner-up, Bygones Of Brid, and the third, Ballybriggan, have both won since.
The Henderson bumper horses are always worth following and this season’s batch is only just a little below his average seasonal strike-rate of 30%. Lifestyle was backed as though defeat was out of the question for her racecourse debut at Ffos Las in January, which she won by six lengths, and is likely to reward her backers again in the DBS/EBF Mares' Standard Open NH Flat Race.
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