Horse Racing: Sanders Winding Up for a Title Challenge

One winner from six rides here yesterday did not significantly advance Seb Sanders' claims to be the next champion Flat jockey, but there will have been no complaints from his many loyal followers at the downland track.

At the start of racing, Sanders was showing a level-stakes profit of £95.76 to a £1 stake on his 243 mounts at the course since 2001. This morning, his LSP at Brighton is into three figures, thanks to the 10-1 success of Princelywallywogan in the last.

"I think the punters here are quite happy with me," Sanders said yesterday, showing a gift for understatement that is as impressive as his record around this teasing devil of a track. Indeed, even the locally raised Ryan Moore cannot match Sanders around Brighton, and the regulars have long since learned to place maximum faith in him.

"I don't really know why my record is so good here," Sanders said, "and it's certainly not the easiest of tracks, but it really has been a great hunting ground for me.

"I rode a lot here as an apprentice when I was with Reg Akehurst, so I probably know it as well as most. Race-riding is never just a case of going from A to B, but that's even more true here, because of the turns, the undulations and the camber."

Princelywallywogan was always prominent, and held off a series of challenges to make it a lucky last for Sanders' backers, and keep his own challenge for the jockeys' title ticking over.

Now on 86 winners for the season, he remains 11 behind Robert Winston, who has surged ahead in the last two weeks and rode the first winner at Pontefract yesterday, while Jamie Spencer, with 90, was still splitting the pair of them at the end of yesterday afternoon.

"It would be lovely to be the champion jockey, but at the moment I'm just concentrating on the horses I'm riding and not worrying about the title at all," he says. "If we're there with a shout at the end of September, then we'll give it a real push, but I don't honestly think that my agent can get me any more rides or winners at the moment than he is already.

"The main thing for me at the moment is that, touch wood, I'm going to get to 100 winners again for what would be the fourth consecutive year. When you look at the stats for all the top riders we've had, people like Pat Eddery and so on, that's one thing that they always mention, how many years on the trot that they've got to 100. Barring disasters, I'll be there again this year."

If Sanders is to quicken up as Winston has done in recent weeks, the horses from Sir Mark Prescott's Newmarket yard, where he is now the first jockey, will be crucial.

Prescott is a famously slow starter in his Flat campaigns, but this year it has taken longer than ever for his horses to emerge. "They've taken a long time to come to hand," Sanders says, "but from now they should be all guns blazing, and giving me plenty more opportunities.

"Sir Mark is a great man to work for, he gives a jockey plenty of confidence. There are no grey areas with him, you always know exactly what you're doing. He'll never once say something like 'whatever you do, don't get boxed in', or 'I could do with a winner', there's never any of that sort of pressure."

Winston remains the narrow favourite for the title, but Sanders seems the man most likely to put in a strong finish. And if an ability to master Brighton's mischievous switchback counts for anything, he would make a worthy champion.