SANDOWN last Saturday was lucky to pass their inspection, and it gave Dan Skelton yet another opportunity to top up his coffers in the pursuit of the trainers’ championship. But it was his low-key winner in the first race that I thought might pop under the radar, writes Page Fuller

They say you can only beat what you’re up against, and that was very true in the case of Sinnatra in the two-mile maiden hurdle. He had been unlucky to bump into two exciting types on his previous starts over hurdles, and held no punches against his inferior rivals last week.

Granted, a winning distance of 55 lengths is enough to illustrate how classy he was compared to the field but, despite the hack canter he won it in, he still recorded a win time 3.59secs faster than the competitive handicap hurdle later in the day.

Despite some fairly scrappy jumping, he also looks like a lovely, big, chasing type. His average stride length of 6.7 metres, and peak stride length of 7.3 metres were larger than any other horse running at Sandown on the day. He had an average entry speed at his hurdles of 30mph and it burnt off any chance of a challenge from his rivals.

This lovely, efficient way of striding meant that he was able to gallop his rivals into the ground and should be a massive asset back against classier opponents.