Langer Dan landed today’s Paddy Power Imperial at Sandown, making one of our customers a millionaire in the process. The result also simultaneously setting Langer Dan up for a tilt at Paddy’s £50,000 bonus if he goes on to land the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival next week. Following the race Paddy Power immediately slashed Langer Dan price for the race at the great festival too.
Winning trainer Dan Skelton told ITV Racing: “It was brilliant – I’ve so much admiration for this little horse. Colm [Donlon] who owns him, he always likes to have a juvenile on the team and when he started this year we thought he was just going to be one of those horses that just has a juvenile season.”
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- Paddy Power Millionaire Chase: Customer £1m richer as Langer Dan wins Imperial Cup at Sandown
“But he’s a credit to himself, he’s so tough. We just took the pressure off him after the autumn and he’s thrived. He’s great – he’s tiny, he has a brilliant attitude, he’s all heart and he actually won a Listed race as a juvenile.
“He was Ocovango’s first winner and then he followed up very quickly with a Listed win and he’s just been a great little horse. I’d say [the chance of] getting in [the Martin Pipe] is nil, but if that nil becomes something, he’ll run. Whatever price he is then, it is what he is his chance will be what it will be. It’s hard to turn around quickly at this time of year, but given the prestige and everything around it, he’ll have to have a go if he gets in.”
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The Paddy Power Imperial Cup £50,000 bonus would see £20,000 awarded to the winning owner, £10,000 to winning trainer, £10,000 to the winning yard and £10,000 to the winning jockey (split in half if different jockeys ride at Sandown Park and Cheltenham).
It’s a tough ask to land the bonus as only three horses have won it – Olympian (1993 Coral Cup), Blowing Wind (1998 County Handicap Hurdle) and Gaspara (2007 Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle). All three horses hailed from the famous Nicholashayne yard in Somerset belonging to the Pipe family. Martin Pipe saddled Olympian and Blowing Wind, while Gaspara was trained by his son and successor David.
Meanwhile, we utilised the Paddy Power Imperial Cup as the race to make Geoff from Bootle a millionaire, following some previous bad luck with the great British weather and the abandonment of the two scheduled fixtures at Cheltenham in January, as well as another attempt at Chelmsford in Feburary.
It is the culmination of a campaign where our online customers who backed winners of a designated Saturday race went into a draw the following Monday, which broadcast live on social media. Each weekly draw winner gained £10,000 and a “Golden Ticket”, which randomly assigned them a runner in the Paddy Power Imperial Cup and meant one of them joined the ‘millionaire club’ on Saturday afternoon. Congrats again Geoff!
READ MORE ON CHELTENHAM 2021
- Cheltenham tips: Ruby Walsh’s Cheat Sheet for all 4 days of the Festival
- Cheltenham tips: Frank Hickey’s NAP for each day of 2021 Festival
- Cheltenham tips: Our Championship races cheat sheet for the Festival
- Cheltenham tips: Mick Fitzgerald’s sizzling Lucky 15 for the Festival
- Cheltenham tips: 5 former festival winners Paddy’s pundits think will strike again in 2021
- Cheltenham tips: Ruby Walsh and Frank Hickey’s Martin Pipe Handicap Hurdle antepost bets
- Cheltenham tips: Ruby Walsh and Frank Hickey’s County Hurdle antepost picks
- Cheltenham tips: Gina Bryce’s top picks in the championship races
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