Sandown Racecourse

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

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