The heats of the RSN Sandown Cup are now less than three weeks away and the series looks as wide open as we’ve seen.
TAB.com.au has installed Mister Harlewood the $5 pre-nomination favourite and he justified TAB’s assessment with another impressive victory on Saturday night.
However there were a number of other notable performances over the weekend that will have piqued the interest of punters across the country, and few that will have left them scratching their heads.
Here’s a look at how the leading market contenders fared. Odds quoted are the tab.com.au pre-nomination price as at 9.00pm on Sunday 3 May, click here for the latest market.
The RSN Sandown Cup will be run on Thursday 28 May.
Sandown Park, Sunday 3 May 2020, 595m
Winner: Renewed by 0.77 lengths in 34.41
Others in the market: Zipping Truvy (3rd), Rajasthan (6th)
A provincial graded mixed 4/5 over 595m drew particular attention with defending RSN Sandown Cup champ Rajasthan ($18) meeting boom NSW chacer Zipping Truvy, who has been the best backed runner for the Cup despite having never raced over more than 618m.
However drawn in the squeeze boxes, both Zipping Truvy (box 5) and Rajasthan (box 4) were beaten for early pace and shuffled out the back. Zipping Truvy switched to the inside and railed well early, before switching to the outside and finding the line well to reduce the margin to the winner. As Zipping Truvy made her move on the inside, Rajastan went to the outside and never got out of trouble. Forget he went around – it was just the second time he’s missed a place in 14 starts in 2020 – but don’t forget the winner, it won’t be the last time Renewed wins over the middle distance.