Whatever Next, the bottom weight, can make a winning return to Sandown in today's Tote Credit Club 0800 825550 Hurdle.
Good value for his eight-length victory in a novice handicap here last month, Whatever Next can prove that effort was no fluke by defying a rise in the weights. Great rivals Martin Pipe and Paul Nicholls take each other on in the unlikeliest of races today. Britain's top two jumps trainers clash head-on in the Alvis Grand Military Gold Cup, a chase restricted to horses owned and ridden by members of the armed forces. Nicholls won the prize 12 months ago with Court Melody and this time saddles Yorkshire Edition.
A winner of his first two starts over fences at Wincanton last autumn, Yorkshire Edition was clearly under the weather when running poorly last time out, as he has been off the track for over three months since.
But Pipe, who saw off Nicholls in a hard-fought battle for the trainers' title last season, will have high hopes of winning with Spring Saint.
But Spring Saint seems best when able to dominate and has also shown a slight tendency to jump to his left - quite a handicap around right-handed Sandown.
So it may prove safer to side with Yorkshire Edition, who looked a chaser of some potential earlier in the season. Trainers Oliver Sherwood and Paul Webber were bothfined £4,000 at a Jockey Club Disciplinary Committee inquiry at Portman Square yesterday over their part in the sale of Pru's Profiles at Doncaster Bloodstock Sales in May 1995.
They were found to have acted in a manner prejudicial to the good reputation of horseracing contrary to Rule 220 (iii) of the Rules of Racing.
Webber and Sherwood's legal representative did not offer any evidence.
The decision to hold an inquiry follows a High Court case in November at which owner Gary Heywood was awarded damages of £51,480 against the Curragh Bloodstock Agency.
A judge found that Heywood had been persuaded to pay more than the horse was worth and that Webber, who was then an employee of the CBA, had been involved in collusive bidding with Sherwood.
