The Cambridgeshire Handicap

The Cambridgeshire is the most difficult handicap raced on British soil, over jumps or on the flat - Period.

The huge field (topped only by The Grand National), coupled with the unusual race distance of 1 mile and 1 furlong makes this the knottiest of problems for punters. Our own little Everest, finding the winner of which will bring you far less praise and recognition, but will leave you with no less of a glow.

I've been at the rockface (to slaughter the metaphor yet further) on this one since final declarations came out on Thursday, looking for angles, looking for reasons to oppose certain horses, but of course, paragraph one still applies no matter what and there are still many imponderables - unexposed youngsters, a couple of foreign raiders, one sent over from Ireland by handicap-king Tony Martin, a few stepping up in distance, a few running in a huge field for the first time.....questions, questions.

Okay, the 'pace' looks to be predominantly low drawn, with MARAHEB (8), CIRCUMVENT (10) and CONSTANT CONTACT (15) all likely to be racing prominently. Although yesterday's Silver Cambridgeshire produced a winner from stall one, it's as well not to get too carried away with history - the higher drawn horses acquitted themselves well, however today, I can only see CROWN COUNSEL from stall 29 putting pedal to the metal down the stands side and I'm ruling out anything higher than that as I can't see them getting much of a tow in comparison with the far side and middle.

Plenty will be looking for an unexposed youngster who is a potential Group class animal in the future, but leaving aside that from memory only Lear Spear and Halling of recent winners, have gone on to mix it in the upper echelons of racing, 'unexposed' in a race like this, equates to 'inexperienced'. I want to be against the likes of favourite DARE TO DANCE (3 career starts and possibly needs it softer), MAQARAAT (5 starts), CRY FURY (5 starts) and QUESTIONING (7 starts) due to their lack of street-smarts in a huge field like this. A bold move perhaps but recent winners like CREDIT SWAP (back again this year but ruled out on the basis of going preference, trainer form and now being 7lb higher in the weights), Supaseus, Spanish Don, Beauchamp Pilot and I Cried For You were hardly babes in arms.

It would be foolish however to ignore the effect of weight in a race of this nature. You do need to be not only in form, but also lightly weighted, or at least, not burdened with to much baggage - Beauchamp Pilot humped 9-5 to victory but that was in 2002 and I'm happy to set that weight as my ceiling above which I'm prepared to ignore the likes of course specialist PROPONENT, Detorri's mount MAN OF ACTION (who falls down on the experience factor too) and other old favourites in these cavalry charges such as NANTON and PINTURA.

PIRES will have his supporters based on his trainer, however I can't have him on his form in big fields. He's only ever won in fields of 8 or less and whilst 9 furlongs on decent ground looks right up his street, I'm happy to assume he will be overbet and ignore him.

Having whittled the field down to a more manageable size with the above filters, it's now a question of looking for the positives: an animal showing good recent form, who can act on the (good-to-firm) ground, who has form in a big field and with scope to improve still further and who is trained by someone who can extract that necessary improvement.

Say hello to SAGRAMOR.

Toss out his last run, where he was found to be lame in both hind legs post-race (and Goodwood's undulations are no place for a horse with such an ailment) and you have an animal with very compelling credentials.

Although with only 8 career starts, he has proven his experience in a big-field, straight-course handicap where they go hell-for-leather, in taking the Britannia Handicap at Royal Ascot in June. That was on rain-softened ground but he won on good ground in a 17 runner field prior to that at Haydock and whilst you could crab his credentials racing over 9 furlongs for the first time, he has not been stopping at the end of his races over a mile. He is with Hughie Morrison who trained Supaseus to win this race in 2009 and has had just the three starts this season, so comes here fresh. He's available at 16/1 to good money with Betfair as I write and has traded at a couple of points higher than that already.

At bigger odds (32/1 for buttons on Betfair at present) MARKAZZI has plenty going for him.

By his own high standards Sir Michael Stoute has had a poor season and is bumbling along at  a current strike rate of only 10%. However you don't become a bad trainer in a season and (beside his price) there is plenty to like about this one.

Set to carry 8-13 he is another lightly raced improver, who has experience in big-field handicaps of this nature, coming 3rd in a 19 runner race on the July Course here in the summer, before going on to win at Haydock against 15 rivals. Last time he was a far-from-disappointing fifth of 18 on rain-softened ground at York. Promising over 10 furlongs on his reappearance at Sandown in June, stamina doubts can be put to rest and he looks to have put last year's 'annus horribilis' behind him thanks to the time honoured cure-all of having his knackers cut off over the winter.

Maybe the draw is against him but this is only a 'marginal' and is factored into his price - each-way if you must!