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THE final weekend before the Cheltenham Festival is traditionally a low key affair, but there are still some nice prizes up for grabs both on the level at Wolverhampton and over the sticks at Sandown Park with the Imperial Cup Handicap Hurdle the feature event at the latter venue.

Let’s start at the Esher track where the main betting event is due to start at 2.25. With plenty of rain forecast for the course on Friday we could have ground on the soft side of good to soft and that would certainly play in the favour of Calico (found the ground too quick at Hereford last time out), the lightly raced Hydroplane and the unexposed Monviel.

All three have solid each-way claims, but the one I like most of all is the Irish raider KIHAVAH trained by Adrian Keatley. The five-year-old has endured a busy season, having raced seven times since October, but he seems to thrive on his work, winning on his most recent start at Musselburgh off a mark of 122.