The Paddy Power Imperial Cup is a 2M ½F listed handicap hurdle run at Sandown on the Saturday (12th March) before Cheltenham. Previous sponsors of the race, Sunderlands, offered a £75K bonus to any
winner who went on to win at the Festival the following week and it’s good to see that current sponsors, Paddy Power, have continued the offer, recently achieved by Gaspara in 2007.
Below we take a look at the trends for the past 10 runnings:
Age (Win-Place-Runners)
4yo: 2-1-9
5yo: 4-6-44
6yo: 3-8-60
7yo: 0-10-47
8yo: 0-4-21
9yo: 1-1-13
10yo+: 0-0-6
Younger horses have fared better in recent years, especially 4yos who have gained 2 wins and a place from 8 runners in the last 4 renewals (which improves to 2 wins and 1 place from 4 runners when only
including 4yos priced less than 25/1)
Horses aged 4 to 6: 9-15-113
Horses aged 7 or older: 1-15-87
9 of the last 10 winners were aged 4 to 6
5 of the 6 winners aged 4 or 5 came from the Pipe stable

Breeding
French bred: 6-5-56
Irish bred: 2-8-49
British bred: 1-12-60
German bred: 1-3-19
Other: 0-2-16
6 of 10 winners were French bred, and they only represented 28% of the total runners in the past 10 runnings.

Weight (Win-Place-Runners)
Horses carrying 10-10 or more: 4-18-94
Horses carrying 10-9 or less: 6-12-106
No majorly significant trend with regard to weights though the last 8 winners all carried less than 11-0.
Top Weight: 0-1-11 (2067P080000) has a poor record in this.

Official Ratings
Horses rated 131 or higher: 2-9-59
Horses rated 121 to 130: 4-16-99
Horses rated 120 or lower: 4-5-42
The official ratings of the winners have been spread out, though in recent years horses rated 124 to 135 have done best, gaining all 4 wins and filling 10 of 16 places in past 4 years.

Recent/Past Form
9 of 10 winners finished in the first 3 on last completed start
8 of 10 winners won 1 of their last 2 starts
9 of 10 winners had their last run between 21 and 55 days ago
8 of 10 winners posted their highest RPR last time out (2 exceptions did so on penultimate start)
9 of 10 winners had run in no more than 2 handicap hurdles
9 of 10 winners had run 3 to 9 times over hurdles
9 of 10 winners had won no more than twice over hurdles (exception had won 3 non-handicap hurdles)
8 of 10 winners were novice hurdlers (1 exception previously ran in just 3 hurdles)
10 of 10 winners had run in 1 to 5 hurdles since August
5 of 10 winners ran on the flat (4 of those were rated 90 or higher)
0 of 10 winners had won a listed or graded hurdle

Other Races
Previous year's winner (Qaspal): 9 (0-0-1)
Swinton Handicap Hurdle winner (Eradicate): 0 (0-0-1)
3 of 10 winners won a Taunton Novice Hurdle that season
2 of 10 winners ran in Ascot’s Betfair Mobile H’cap Hurdle, finishing 10
2 of 10 winners ran in Heros Introductory Hurdle, finishing 31

Trainers
David Pipe (2-2-6) has carried on the great tradition his father Martin (3-3-18), he has trained the winner in '07 and '08 and his two runners in 2009 finished 2nd and 4th. His record with 4yos is 2 wins
and 1 place from 3 runners.
Philip Hobbs (1-3-11) trained the first two home last year and the 3rd in 2009.
Nicky Henderson (1-1-12) won the race in 2009 with Dave’s Dream but had not done well in the race prior to that.
Lucy Wadham (0-2-8), Paul Nicholls (0-2-9) and Gary Moore (0-2-11) have all had 2 placed runners in the past 10 runnings.
Irish trainers (1-2-11) have gained 1 win and 2 places from 11 runners since 2001.

Price
6 of 10 winners were sent off favourite
The longest priced winner in the past 10 years has been 16/1 but favourites (6-1-10) have done particularly well, winning 6 of the last 9 renewals, (level stakes profit of 13.03).

Summary:
Based on the trends from the past 10 years you are looking for a horse:
· Aged 4 to 6 (especially 4 or 5yos from Pipe stable)
· French bred
· Carrying less than 11-0
· Officially rated 124 to 135
· Finished in first 3 on last start, 21 to 55 days ago
· Posted highest RPR in winning on 1 of last 2 outings
· Run 3 to 9 times over hurdles (won no more than twice)
· Run in no more than 2 handicap hurdles
· Novice hurdler
· NH bred or officially rated 90+ on the flat
· Trained by David Pipe or Phillip Hobbs
· Sent off favourite