Sprint Cup Preview: Rex Imperator to dominate at Haydock

I'm going to start this article with a plug, not for anything I have produced myself but for Timeform colleague Jamie Lynch's ante-post preview podcast of the Haydock Sprint Cup, in which he puts forward an array of salient points. 

Jamie has largely done my job for me on this one as I am in total agreement with his selection, so I urge you to listen to the podcast by clicking HERE whilst I eulogise about my favourite horse in training, Rex Imperator. 

The suspicion is that 'Rexy' (as he is known, if only in my head) is yet to produce a performance that his talent entitles him to, and that includes his devastating triumph in the Stewards' Cup at Goodwood. He has long been a horse of considerable ability and we saw flashes of that earlier in his career, notably when winning a decent Windsor handicap with abundant ease in June of last year and when shaping well in a strong race at Newmarket that same month. 

Having been sent home in disgrace from Dubai (more can be read here) and transferred to the yard of William Haggas he was handed over to Gary Witheford, who specialises in horses with behavioural problems, and has since been on his best behaviour on the track with Witheford the man down at the start loading him into the stalls.

An eyecatching effort over seven furlongs at Doncaster at the start of the season had many suggesting that he was nailed on for the Wokingham and, whilst he wasn't disgraced, he could only manage to finish sixth. However, connections have fitted him with cheekpieces since that day and his form has taken off, finding only the progressive Tropics too strong at Windsor before blowing the Stewards' Cup field apart last month. 

It was not only Rex Imperator's margin of victory, under a hefty BHA mark of 104, that is of note but also the style of his success in a race that combined both quantity and an abundance of quality. The latter trait was displayed in no uncertain terms by Rex Imperator himself as, with the entire the field under pressure a furlong and a half from home, he was still pulling Neil Callan's arms out of their sockets and when he was finally asked to quicken up it was with a deciveness that had the race won in a matter of strides. 

Rex Imperator, credited with a Timeform rating of 121 for that performance, has since finished second in a Group 3 at York but neither the soft ground nor the seven furlongs that day were ideal, and he also met with trouble from a loose horse, so that effort is well worth forgiving. 

Clearly Rex Imperator will need to improve again if he is to trouble Lethal Force and land this Group 1 but, as Jamie says in his podcast, Hoof It showed that you can make the jump from top-end handicapper to Group 1 performer when only narrowly denied in this race in 2011. Lethal Force aside Rex Imperator is very close to the top of the weight-adjusted ratings for this race, a fact which is not reflected in his generous price of 18.535/2. 

A quick mention must go to my old mate Swiss Spirit, who I think I've tipped up without reward in every race he has contested this year. Fortune hasn't been in his favour and the ground scuppered his chance in the Nunthorpe at York, but his level seems to be established whilst Rex Imperator could yet develop into a top sprinter.

Don't let me down Rexy!

Recommendation:
Back Rex Imperator @ 18.535/2 in the Sprint Cup

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