Natural History 3-1 favourite in final field of 15 for Sandown's Imperial Cup

Promising novice Natural History heads a field of 15 confirmed runners for the Paddy Power Imperial Cup at Sandown on Saturday.

The six-year-old dotted up by 15 lengths on his handicap debut at Plumpton this month and is 3-1 favourite with the sponsors to land a big Saturday prize for trainer Gary Moore.

His nearest market rival is the Dan Skelton-trained Langer Dan, who finished just under five lengths behind Aramax in last season's Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.

Sandown's Saturday card

Highway One O Two, Eamon An Cnoic and Leoncavallo have all shown useful form this season, while champion trainer Paul Nicholls saddles three in Diego Du Charmil, Miranda and 2019 winner Malaya.

Nigel Twiston-Davies has won two of the last four runnings of the £50,000 handicap and will be represented this time by general 14-1 shot One True King.

Connections of the winner of the Imperial Cup will once again be in line for a £50,000 bonus from the race sponsors if they can go on to claim victory at next week's Cheltenham Festival.

Only three horses have won the bonus in the past - Olympian (1993), Blowing Wind (1998) and Gaspara (2007) - with all three horses trained by the Pipe family.

Paddy Power Imperial Cup runners and riders

1. Miranda (Angus Cheleda) Paul Nicholls
2. Diego Du Charmil (Harry Cobden) Paul Nicholls
3. Fransham (Kielan Woods) Pam Sly
4. Leoncavallo (Tom Scudamore) David Pipe
5. Highway One O Two (Tom Cannon) Chris Gordon
6. Mick Maestro (Charlie Todd) Nick Kent
7. Malaya (Bryony Frost) Paul Nicholls
8. Miss Heritage (Richard Johnson) Lucy Wadham
9. Natural History (Jamie Moore) Gary Moore
10. One True King (Sam Twiston-Davies) Nigel Twiston-Davies
11. Hang In There (Tom Bellamy) Emma Lavelle
12. Langer Dan (Harry Skelton) Dan Skelton
13. Mack The Man (James Bowen) Evan Williams
14. Eamon An Cnoic (Fergus Gillard) David Pipe
15. Hasanabad (Sean Bowen) Ian Williams

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