Sandy Beach is favourite for this primarily due to his trainer Colin Tizzard. The jolly returned to action to comprehensively beat weak opposition on his seasonal reappearance, and receives an 8lb penalty for that win.
He could be progressive, and you can understand his position at the top-of-the-market, however, the step up in trip to 3m is not assured and he comes up against much stronger, experienced opposition as he bids for consecutive wins.
This race has all the hallmarks of a huge run from KRUZHLININ, who was successful in this exact contest last year. He does have an 8lb higher mark to carry, but he arguably would have won carrying it last year, and he put in one of his most dominant performances last time out over the smaller obstacles.
Although he is better treated over timber, Hobbs is likely to have had this as a target for some time and has probably spent a decent amount of time schooling the selection off the back of a nice break.
Kruzhlinin has made up in to a decent staying chaser, who should relish the conditions, as will champion jockey Richard Johnson who should have an easier task dominating a field this size.
The selection has not enjoyed as much success in big-field handicaps, which included a fifth in the Kim Muir Chase and a stab at the Grand National in April, but has been much more at-home in smaller field handicaps where he can control the pace.
He has got a hefty enough weight of 11st 8lbs to carry which makes this a difficult enough task, but he has carried top-weight to win before, and the ground remains decent enough so the bottom-weights should have less of an advantage.
1pt win Kruzhlinin @5/1, 15:15 Saturday, Kempton Park (skybet)
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