A nice easy twenty-strong field lines up for the Festival's “getting out stakes” and it’s no surprise to see the Willie Mullins-trained Spanish Harlem a warm order at the head of the market, particularly as he’s the mount of star conditional Michael O’Sullivan. However, he’s got very similar form claims to Imagine, who is currently trading at slightly bigger odds and looks the pick of the six Gordon Elliott-trained runners.
Elliott always like to target the race named in honour of his mentor Martin Pipe and Imagine fits the profile of his two previous winners (Champagne Classic in 2017 and Blow by Blow in 2018), being an above-average novice who wouldn’t look out of place in graded company.
Although he’s hit the bar when runner-up on all three starts since a successful hurdling debut, that form looks strong and could well receive a timely boost earlier on Friday afternoon – on the first occasion he finished in front of Albert Bartlett hopeful Three Card Brag, whilst he chased home County Hurdle favourite Hunters Yarn last time. His defeat of Spanish Harlem came between those runs and, reopposing off just 4 lb worse terms here, he gets the vote at odds of around 11/2.
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