Making Headway bids to provide the burgeoning training partnership of Oliver Greenall and Josh Guerriero with a significant pre-Cheltenham boost in the Betfair Imperial Cup at Sandown.

The Cheshire-based team will not send many runners to the Cotswolds next week but do have a major bullet to fire in the form of stablemate Iroko, winner of the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Hurdle 12 months ago and this time a serious player in the Turners Novices’ Chase.

Making Headway himself holds Cheltenham engagements in the Coral Cup and the Martin Pipe, but for now all eyes are on this weekend’s Sandown feature, the traditional appetiser to the Festival.

The six-year-old has enjoyed a fine first season over hurdles, with wins at Carlisle in October and Newbury last month sandwiching two creditable efforts in graded company, and Greenall feels he has plenty going for him on Saturday.

“He’s an improving horse who has run in some good races and run well,” he said.

“I don’t think it’s the deepest Imperial Cup there’s ever been, the favourite of Ben Pauling’s (Jipcot) won well at Huntingdon the other day but that was a lesser race, so he needs to step up again.

“We’ve got some good form with some good horses. He’s obviously inexperienced and needs further, but soft ground and the stiff finish at Sandown will suit him.”

Pauling is another trainer who can look forward to sending a small but select team to Cheltenham following an excellent recent run of form.

As well as saddling Jipcot, who carries a 7lb penalty for a comfortable win at Huntingdon last Sunday, the Naunton Downs handler has another leading contender in the form of Bad, who has been placed in four similarly competitive handicaps already this season and is due a change of luck.

“Jipcot has always been a horse who we knew had ability but had just been struggling to get exactly where we wanted him. It looks like the application of a hood and tongue-tie seems to have worked the oracle,” said Pauling.

“It’s quite a quick turnaround, but he didn’t have to do an awful lot to win at Huntingdon and he goes there in good form.

“I’m looking forward to seeing him back in some decent company. I’m not sure the 7lb will be too much of an issue and it’s been a case of getting his head in the right place really.”

On Bad, he added: “I was confident that going up in trip with him was the right thing to do, but with the ground being how it is and how it is going to ride on Saturday, he will be a stout stayer over two miles and I’m looking forward to seeing how he gets on.”

Paul Nicholls is hoping French recruit Sans Bruit can raise his game after what was an underwhelming debut British introduction at Doncaster in January.

“He didn’t quite get the trip at Doncaster where he was a bit keen on his debut for us on his first time since a wind op,” the champion trainer told Betfair.

“He should appreciate stepping back in distance to two miles and he has plenty of decent form on soft ground in France, where he won five times over hurdles.

“We are running him in a hood to try to help him relax and he looks to have a nice each-way chance.”

Sans Bruit will be partnered by Harry Cobden, but jockeys’ championship rival Sean Bowen is confident of clawing one back aboard Olly Murphy’s Go Dante.

A winner at Cheltenham in December, he was a respectable third in the Betfair Hurdle last month and goes to post off the same mark.

“It was a very good run at Newbury and he’ll enjoy the track and ground at Sandown,” said Bowen.

“He’s really progressed with each run this season and I’m really looking forward to riding him. He’ll love conditions and everything should suit.”

The sole Irish-trained contender is David O’Brien’s Minx Tiara, who was last seen filling the runner-up spot after leading for a long way in a Listed handicap hurdle at Leopardstown.

O’Brien, who trains around 15 horses at his base in Piltown, said: “Minx Tiara has come out of her run at the Dublin Racing Festival very well and seems in great form.

“The prize money is so good at Sandown and the owners are mad keen for a day out – they are a great bunch of lads and have had a lot of fun over the years. She is nine years old now and there might not be that many more chances to travel with her.

“Hopefully this is a good opportunity for her while she is in such good form. I thought she was well-handicapped, although I am a little bit worried that the English handicapper has given her an extra 9lb compared to her mark in Ireland and she is up 11lb overall for her run at Leopardstown.

“Sean and Danny (Mullins) who have both ridden her said with the form she is in at the moment, there could be a nice prize in her. Hopefully, she has an each-way chance.”

Owner Andrew Megson is excited to see if ante-post favourite Jipcot can continue trainer Ben Pauling’s blistering run of form in Saturday’s Betfair Imperial Cup.

The Naunton Downs handler has enjoyed a stellar campaign with his thriving string and Yorkshireman Megson, as one of Pauling’s biggest benefactors, is one of the owners who has reaped the rewards.

Both Pauling and Megson possess strong chances at next week’s Cheltenham Festival – including Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle hope Tellherthename.

However, before attentions turn to Prestbury Park, the owner and trainer will team up in search of Sandown’s £100,000 feature at the weekend with a French recruit finally beginning to find his feet on UK shores and Jipcot will attempt to rapidly back up an impressive success at Huntingdon last Sunday.

“The minute we got him to the winner’s enclosure at Huntingdon Ben said ‘right, if he’s OK tomorrow we will go for the Imperial Cup’,” said Megson.

“He absolutely bolted up and the way he accelerated on dead ground was astonishing.

“Ben told us he will go up 10lb for that so will be well in under a 7lb penalty, but also it doesn’t matter anyway and he will be well in simply because he is a talented horse.

“He’s bounced out of Huntingdon like he didn’t have a race and we are hopeful of a big run. He goes on any ground and now Ben has managed to calm him down and settle we would hope he runs very well, we’re very excited.

“I don’t want to jinx him and I haven’t backed him because I don’t want to put pressure on him, but we are hopeful of a big run.”

Twice a winner at Pau – including at Listed level – before switching to Pauling, Jipcot has always been held in the highest regard by connections and began life for the Cotswolds-based training team in the Triumph Hurdle at last season’s Cheltenham Festival.

That ultimately proved too stiff an assignment for the precocious import, who after struggling over fences at the beginning of the current season, finally broke his UK duck when reverting to timber last weekend.

Megson is full of praise for Pauling’s perseverance with the talented five-year-old, who now finds himself as short as 7-2 with Sky Bet and 4-1 with sponsors Betfair ahead of his next assignment – where he will bid to send both trainer and owner on to Cheltenham on a high.

“We think he is really smart he has just taken a while to settle in the UK, we bought him out of France,” continued Megson.

“He had an entry in the Triumph when we brought him over and he appeared to settle well, so when we had a chat with Ben we decided we would run him.

“He had won a Listed race at Pau, but as it turned out, 70,000 people on Gold Cup day at Cheltenham was a bit much for him and what happened next was we tried him over fences but he just didn’t settle.

“Ben said why don’t we go back over hurdles, just to settle him down and go back to what he’s used to – lets not force him. He’s a nice horse and lets give him a few months off.

“He did that and rather than train him with the other horses on the gallops at home he was doing things on his own on the round gallop with the intention of just calming everything down.

“We put a tongue-tie and a hood on him and it all just clicked and the horse we thought we had bought was the one that turned up at Huntingdon. There was only five horses in the race, but it was quite hot and he was carrying 12st 2lb – that was 11lb more than the second.”