Betfair Imperial Cup tip: 25-1 shot can deliver a Top performance

With seven of the past ten winners of the Betfair Imperial Cup having been sent off at 10-1 or shorter, you might be forgiven for thinking this is a race that often goes the way of the market leader. However, just one of the past ten jollies have won, and that winning favourite, Go Dante, is back again off a 5lb higher mark, bidding for a third successive win for Olly Murphy and Sean Bowen.

This season though, the one they all have to beat is Mondo Man. Fifth in the 2024 French Derby and rated 111 on the Flat, he held his own in good company in his first five starts over hurdles (plus once on the Flat in the Ormonde Stakes) for his current connections, before emphatically breaking his maiden tag when stepped down in class last time.

There is a maximum field of 21 rivals up against him, however, and so his odds of 11-4 don’t make great appeal. Instead, I'd prefer to take a chance on the highly consistent and unexposed novice TOP JIMMY at 25-1 each-way, with six places on offer with many firms, including the sponsors.

With just four starts over hurdles, the lightly-raced six-year-old has yet to run a bad race and can give a bold bid from the front down in trip. After winning his first two maiden hurdles, he was then pitched into the Betfair Winter Novices’ Hurdle at this track where he led, but faded to finish third behind the impressive winner and subsequent Grade One scorer No Drama This End.

The fifth and the fourth in that Grade Two have both subsequently won, whilst Top Jimmy went onto finish second at Windsor in another strong race that has also thrown up a couple of next time out winners. He has gone up 3lb for that effort, but a mark of 128 still looks very workable.

Nigel Twiston-Davies won this twice just before the turn of the decade, including with a similarly lightly-raced horse that had been competing over further in Flying Angel. The current stable form is a slight cause for concern, but you are getting a massive price about a horse who always runs his race, still has the potential to improve and is generally a very sound jumper.