Megan Nicholls Racing Preview: Sandown Jumps Finale Tips

BetMGM ambassador Megan Nicholls gives her thoughts on the horse racing world, bringing her insightful opinions and first-rate knowledge exclusively to our blog every week.

This time the former jockey – now a celebrated TV pundit – reflects on an incredible jumps season and the races for Jockeys’ and Trainers’ Championship glory ahead of previewing the final day at Sandown.

Why Cobden & Bowen Are Racing’s Future… and Present

It's the last day of the jumps. It's been another great season for many reasons but, depending on who you are, it's probably a stressful one.

If we start with the jockeys, it looked like it was going to remain really tight coming into the final day but Harry Cobden ended up coming out on top thanks to a win at Chepstow on Friday.

It's been another great season for him and everything has gone pretty smoothly with some big winners along the way. He's a Cheltenham Festival winner and I think he would say it's been a decent season.

I'm sure there are a few frustrations, like being beaten narrowly in the King George VI Chase and one or two horses at the festival not performing to their very best.

But after having big winners throughout the season at the likes of Cheltenham, Newbury, Ascot and so on, I'm sure he will see the season as having been very successful and to lift the trophy will mean an awful lot to him.

On the other side you have Sean Bowen, who was so unfortunate to pick up an injury which left him off the track for a good few weeks. That is definitely the difference between winning and losing the championship. Sean has made a real good go at things in trying to come back and catch Harry but those few weeks out made all the difference.

I hope both jockeys come into next season and get through it injury-free and have a battle against each other. I think it will probably be back in Sean's favour but it would be fascinating to see how things would go if both had an injury-free season.

Both are young, very talented and hugely ambitious. It's great for the sport to see two young jockeys doing so well and to have them as our future stars is very important. We are showing great quality with young guys at the top of our Jockeys’ Championship.

Sean will feel a little deflated that he has missed out – but I don't think he should, he's had a great season. He's had a Grade One winner at Aintree and plenty of other winners along the way.

What a season it's been altogether.

Mighty Mullins On For History – But What A Battle It’s Been

It's been absolutely fascinating and the fact it's going down to the last day is really quite incredible.

Everyone probably thought it was going to be a ding-dong battle between my dad (Paul Nicholls), Nicky Henderson and Dan Skelton coming into the season.

Obviously Nicky had a very frustrating time of things, with the horses not being quite right at a very crucial part of the season. It could not be a more damaging time than around Cheltenham to have the horses not at their very best. Unfortunately, that's how it can go with animals and Nicky has admitted defeat.

He has worked really hard to get the horses back to form and he's done just that for Aintree. I was delighted to see him with some big winners there and to see the horses back to good form was amazing. I'm sure he will have a good day at Sandown as well.

Dan has had an incredible season. After an amazing Cheltenham with some big handicap winners along the way, he's showing that not only the number of winners coming in but also the quality of horses in the yard is starting to shine through – and they just keep getting better and better.

A huge family is involved with the Skeltons – Nick, Harry, Dan, Grace and Bridget. It's a huge team and they have done so exceptionally well.

Dan will feel like he's been robbed. If you can finish ahead of my dad and Nicky Henderson, you will definitely feel like you're taking home the Trainers’ Championship.

However, that's not been the case. Willie Mullins is about to do something that has not been done in 70 years: to take home both the English and Irish Championships.

I mean, it's quite incredible. He's had a small team of horses over here and the fact that he managed to win all the big races is just madness.

The Gold Cup, the Grand National, the Scottish National, the Champion Hurdle… it's just incredible. The quality of horses at the Mullins yard is exceptional and they just seem to be able to be the biggest threat in all the big races. Ultimately, that's what you need in order to win a championship.

The fact that he did not think about giving the championship a real go until after Cheltenham says it all really. It's quite remarkable. Thank goodness he doesn't bring a huge team of horses over every weekend, is all I can say.

But it's been a phenomenal effort. It's incredible what he's done and what he's doing at the moment.

To have three incredible trainers coming into the last day, all of them with a chance is amazing.

For my dad, the fact he was even challenging for a championship again is amazing. There is a real lack of superstars in the yard. We have some nice horses and picked up a couple of Grade Ones through the season but we haven't got the quality we once had, that is for sure.

We have some nice young horses that can hopefully step up to the mark. We need superstars, we need to be competitive in the very top races and, at the moment, we are lacking that.

It's important we try to change it. We are always looking for better horses and better quality. Within the team, we are going to have to try and find the better horses and superstars again.

The fact dad is even challenging just speaks to how well he places the horses and how well the team has done to get the best out of horses who are not at the very top. It was a fantastic effort to challenge three incredible trainers and top-class teams.

It's been a really special season and to be here at Sandown on the last day of the season to see championships being won is what the sport is all about.

SATURDAY RACING TIPS

Sandown 3.00 – Celebration Chase

It’s the usual chat regarding El Fabiolo (8/11 fav) and Jonbon (15/8).

I am still ‘Team El Fabiolo’ and am delighted to see him back after pulling up in the Champion Chase at Cheltenham having made a pretty bad mistake.

He’s had a bit of time to get over that and he looked none-the-worse when we saw him at Sandown earlier today.

Jonbon missed Cheltenham and went to Aintree. He won over two-and-a-half and I think that is going to be the way forward with him. He’s got a lot more stamina but not quite the speed of El Fabiolo.

I’m going to remain loyal to El Fab, who I’ve always absolutely loved.

If he can get into a nice rhythm early, he’s going to take all the beating.

Megan’s Tip: El Fabiolo WIN

Sandown 3.35 – Gold Cup Handicap Chase

Over the three-and-a-half, Kitty’s Light (9/2 fav) is going to be very hard to turn around two weeks after the Grand National having run such a huge race.

He’s got another couple of rivals who have been left fresh for this.

Threeunderthrufive (10/1) has a big ask off of top weight but this has very much been the aim. He missed the National in order to come here and the yard are very happy with him. He doesn’t do an awful lot in front.

I can see Le Milos (8/1) running a big race for the Skeltons. He’s probably not been at his best for the last couple of starts but that was over hurdles. He returns to fences now for the first time since last year’s Grand National.

This has been the aim for a while, so I’m going with Le Milos.

Megan’s Tip: Le Milos WIN

Sandown 4.10 – Select Hurdle

This is interesting. Impaire Et Passe (11/10 Fav) and Langer Dan (11/4) meet again having gone close at Aintree, with Impaire Et Passe getting the better of Langer Dan on that occasion.

I think that Ballyadam (11/2) will enjoy Sandown as a track and obviously comes here as a fresh horse. He’s pretty consistent and effectively he’s better off at the weights today than he was in his race at Cheltenham.

Ballyadam is my selection here. He’s a fresh horse.

Megan’s Tip: Ballyadam WIN

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