Gibbs Island's big target and three third places this week

It’s been a busy week for RaceShare and Gibbs Island will be the last of six runners when he lines up tomorrow in the £100k Imperial Cup at Sandown. This is traditionally a race some connections target with one eye on next week’s County Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival; win tomorrow’s race off a low weight and run in that race potentially well-in under a penalty.

The challenge for Gibbs Island is that he is carrying plenty of weight, giving just shy of up to a stone to 19 of his 21 rivals. He bounced back with a better performance last time out at Musselburgh and the hope is he can build on that. It won’t be easy, but we can’t wait to see how he fares in another prestigious handicap.

Robusto, Buccabay and Marlacoo all made the frame in their respective races this week, with the former coming closest of all in third at Wolverhampton on Tuesday. It was agonisingly close under Billy Loughnane, who produced him to near perfection from the back of the field. For Buccabay, it wasn’t the victory we were hoping for, but the race didn’t pan out to suit him best. He has now won, been second and third in three starts at Kempton, so no doubt a return is on the cards in due course. Marlacoo was joint favourite for a competitive Haydock handicap on Thursday and he looked a big threat early on in the long home straight, cruising into contention from midfield under Stan Sheppard. He was unable to reel in the leaders, but stayed on to be beaten less than five lengths.

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