This Saturday’s Imperial Cup at Sandown will be the feature race on the final weekend before the Cheltenham Festival – so many punters will be trying to find the winner to boast their betting banks for the busy week ahead.
As always, there is also a Imperial Cup bonus (£100k) on the table, should the winner go onto win ANY race at the Cheltenham Festival – so along with the Imperial Cup trends, we also list the 2025 runners and what entries they hold for next week.
2024 Go Dante Looking To Become Only The Fourth Two-Time Imperial Cup Winner
12 months ago, we saw the Olly Murphy yard winning this race for the first time with Go Dante – but they’ve still got a long way to go to better the haul of the Pipes (Martin and David) – with nine between them.
Luckily for the others the Pipe camp doesn’t have any 2025 Imperial Cup runners.
Go Dante will return to Sandown, however – this time on a 2lb lower mark, so will certainly have his backers with the best horse racing betting sites in the UK – but hasn’t won a race since (6 runs).
Last year Go Dante also didn’t run at the Cheltenham Festival so the £100k Betfair Imperial Cup bonus was safe – but this year the horse holds an entry in the County Hurdle on the Friday, should he win again.
Willie Mullins Sends Batman Girac Over
We’ll also see a Willie Mullins runner in the race for the first time in a decade as his Batman Girac is coming over. Mullins has fired in 103 Cheltenham Festival winners over the years, but he’s yet to win the Imperial Cup.
His last runners in the race was Wicklow Brave, who was pulled up at Sandown, but bizarrely went onto win the County Hurdle the following week.
Over the years, there’s only been three horses land the Imperial Cup bonus – all trained by the Pipes.
- 2007 Gaspara – won Fred Winter
- 1998 Blowing Wind – won County Hurdle
- 1993 Olympian – won Coral Cup
Imperial Cup Hurdle 2025 Race Details
📅Date: Saturday 8th March 2025
⌚Time: 2:25pm
🏇Racecourse: Sandown
🔄Trip: 2m
💷Winning Purse: £51,440
📺 TV: ITV4 / Racing TV
Imperial Cup Runners 2025 and Their Cheltenham Festival Entries
There are seven of the 17 Imperial Cup runners that DON’T have any Cheltenham Festival entries for next week.
- Bo Zenith- County Hurdle
- Knickerbockerglory – County Hurdle
- Bo Zenith – Coral Cup and Martin Pipe
- Batman Girac – County Hurdle
- Ooh Betty – County Hurdle
- Hardy Du Seuil – No Entries
- To Chase A Dream – No Entries
- Wreckless Eric – No Entries
- Go Dante – County Hurdle
- Spirits Bay – Coral Cup
- Tintintin – No Entries
- Afadil – County Hurdle
- King William Rufus – No Entries
- Tapley – Jack Richards Handicap Chase and Martin Pipe
- Sorceleur – No Entries
- We’re Red And Blue – County Hurdle
- Big Ginge – No Entries
Imperial Cup Trends 2025 To Help Find The Sandown Winner
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- 19/21 – No more than twice over hurdles
- 19/21 – Had raced within the last 6 weeks
- 19/21 – Won between 1-2 times over hurdles
- 18/21 – Rated 124 or higher
- 16/21 – Aged 6 or younger
- 16/21 – Carried 10-13 or less in weight
- 14/21 – Won over at least 2m1f (hurdles)
- 12/21 – Carried 10-7 or less in weight
- 12/20 – Went onto run at the Cheltenham Festival (1 winner, Gaspara – Fred Winter) (3 in total since 1993)
- 11/21 – Placed in the top two last time out
- 10/21 – Aged 4 or 5 years-old
- 9/21 – Double-figure price in the betting
- 7/21 – Raced at either Cheltenham (2), Sandown (2) or Ascot (2) last time out
- 7/21 – French bred
- 6/21 – Won their last race
- 6/21 – Raced at Sandown (hurdles) before – 2 had won there before
- 6/21 – Favourites
- 5/21 – Won by the Pipe stable (have won it 9 times in all)
- 2/21 – Paul Nicholls (2 of the last 5)
- 2/21 – Nigel Twiston-Davies (2 of last 8)
- 2/21 – Won by an Irish-trained horse
- 2/21 – Ridden by Harry Cobden (2 of the last 5)
- The average winning SP in the last 21 years is 11/1
Imperial Cup Winners (Last 10 Years)
- 2024 – Go Dante (5/1 jfav)
- 2023 – Iceo (5/1)
- 2022 – Surprise Package (20/1)
- 2021 – Langer Dan (5/1)
- 2019 – Malaya (7/1)
- 2018 – Mr Antolini (20/1)
- 2017 – London Prize (10/1)
- 2016 – Flying Angel (9/1)
- 2015 – Ebony Express (33/1)
- 2014 – Baltimore Rock (7/1)
