Key Characteristics
Sandown Racecourse is set in the middle of Esher and the traffic can be horrendous but once you get in the course is excellent.
Sandown is a right handed, oval-shaped course thirteen furlongs in length with a straight of half a mile. It is very much a galloping course with the four furlong run-in being up a steep hill, and therefore you need horses that fully stay the distance to win at Sandown.
It also has a completely separate straight 5 furlong course in the centre of the track, this is uphill all the way and certainly takes some getting.
“There’s no doubt it’s a big advantage being on the far rail up Sandown’s sprint course and a lot of horses drawn badly, even in medium-sized fields, fail to get into contention. It can be tricky in a finish, too, with a lot happening in the final furlong. They always seem to go quick down the back on the round course, and it’s quite a long way from the bottom of the hill to the winning post, but horses really stretch out on that kind final rise to the line”. Jason Weaver
Draw Bias & Pace Analysis
There is a distinct draw bias over 5 furlongs with low numbers being favoured, particularly in large fields (over 10 runners) and in soft going, as they run up the far rail. However as this is well known jockeys will try and get out quickly and track across and this probably explains why a quarter of winners come from the outside two stalls versus 52% coming from the four lowest drawn stalls.
The seven furlongs at Sandown is run round a right hand bend and therefore low numbers are on the inside. It is therefore perhaps not surprising that low drawn horses appear to have a distinct advantage.
Sandown is a tough course to front run at particularly at the longer trips. However if you have a big galloping horse with plenty of stamina for the distance then a relentless gallop will sort the men from the boys. However the course is ranked in the bottom quartile for front runners versus other courses over most trips.
Trainers & Jockeys
Trainers
| Sir Michael Stoute | 30.6 |
| Clive Cox | 20.3 |
| Charlie Appleby | 20.0 |
| Roger Varian | 19.6 |
| William Haggas | 19.6 |
| John Gosden | 18.2 |
| Roger Charlton | 18.0 |
Jockeys
| Ryan Moore | 27.0 |
| Silvestre De Sousa | 22.5 |
| Andrea Atzeni | 19.4 |
| Frankie Dettori | 17.0 |
| James Doyle | 16.7 |
| Jim Crowley | 16.2 |
| Fran Berry | 15.1 |
| Adam Kirby | 13.6 |
