Imperial Cup: "I think he’s probably quite well treated off 128"

Owner-rider David Maxwell is looking forward to unleashing exciting French recruit Just Ennemi in the Betfair Imperial Cup at Sandown on Saturday.

A dual winner from three starts across the Channel, the five-year-old is set to make his debut for trainer Harry Derham in the traditional feature of the Saturday before the Cheltenham Festival.

The sponsors make Just Ennemi a 16-1 shot to strike gold in a £100,000 contest which also offers a further £100,000 bonus for the winner if they can follow up in any race at Prestbury Park next week.

Maxwell’s charge does not hold a Festival engagement, but the amateur jockey – who enjoyed a weekend double with winners at Doncaster and Auteuil – feels Just Ennemi could prove better than his opening handicap mark of 128 this weekend.

He said: “He is a very nice horse who Guy Petit found for me after he won an egg and spoon race in Argentan. I watched the replay and he was gormless for the first circuit and then suddenly went ‘oh it’s racing, I quite like racing actually’, and he bolted up.

“He was disappointing on his first run for me next time at Auteuil, but Dominique Bressou’s horses weren’t really firing at the time, and then he came back for what I thought would be a sighter in September before I brought him to the UK and he went and won – I couldn’t believe it.

“The plan initially was to keep it small for his first run over here. I actually told Harry to find a 0-130 at Market Rasen or somewhere like that, but I think he’s probably quite well treated off 128, so I thought maybe we should try and find a bigger handicap for him.

“The only thing is he’s a young horse who has only seen a racecourse three times, so a competitive handicap hurdle will be a big step up for him in terms of toughness of racing.

“But he’s strengthened up a good bit over the winter and we said we’d let him have a go at a proper race on decent ground, which I think we’re going to get in the Imperial Cup.

“He’s got 10st 9lb at the moment, which I’m not that excited about! I have done 10st 7lb in the past, but I’m 46 years old now and James Reveley doesn’t even do that weight, he was telling me!”

Just Ennemi is one of 28 Imperial Cup contenders, with the Sam Thomas-trained potential top-weight Lump Sum Betfair’s 5-1 favourite.

Other leading hopes include Nicky Henderson’s Bo Zenith, Jonjo and A J O’Neill’s Wreckless Eric and Batman Girac, who could be a rare runner in the race for Willie Mullins.

The European Breeders’ Fund Betfair ‘National Hunt’ Novices’ Handicap Hurdle Final is another big prize up for grabs on Saturday’s Sandown card, with Meetmebythesea on a four-timer for Ben Pauling.

The Kemble Brewery (Kim Bailey and Mat Nicholls) and Belliano (Paul Nicholls) are two other major players, while Maxwell could be on board Off The Jury (Alan King), who ran out at Wetherby last week having previously been placed behind The New Lion and Mister Meggit.

“He hung like a gate at Wetherby and I knew what he was going to do when I turned off the home bend. He was edging his way out and I had two hands on the one rein at one stage to try and pull him in, but at some point you’ve got to move forward and the moment I did he decided to go out the side,” said Maxwell.

“He’s mercurial and we’ll see how he is before we make a final decision about running on Saturday, but he has ability and I think a big field and a strongly-run race will really help him.

“He just keeps running into one, so we might as well run him in something big.”