3 Outsiders To Back This Saturday

Saturday is here again and with it comes a fantastic day of racing that is headlined by the Lockinge Stakes at Newbury.

Alongside the feature meeting of the day, we have seven other fixtures across the UK and Ireland, including some quality free to air TV races which make up this weekend’s ITV Tips.

Saturday’s aren’t about following the favourites though, which is why Luke Parkinson is back in the saddle to pick out three outsiders that could outrun their odds.

He has picks on the flat and over jumps, so let’s see what could be in store for you big priced punters.

Sharja Bridge (3:40 Newbury)

Lightning Spear (16/1) and Rhododendron (10/3f) battled out an epic renewal of the Lockinge last year, with the latter eventually prevailing by a short head.

That was the third favourite to win from the last five renewals and although that would suggest against backing an outsider, Lightning Spear proved they can still be worth some each-way support.

Sharja Bridge is a horse that has been really consistent for Roger Varian, finishing inside the top three on eight of his 11 starts. Three of those have been victories, including the Listed Doncaster Mile in March.

He has finished a 1/2 length second to Beat The Bank since then, but that was arguably his best performance to date.

This requires further improvement but given the combination of Roger Varian and Andrea Atzeni won this with Belardo (8/1) in 2016, it wouldn’t be a surprise if they shocked the odds again.

Holdenhurst (6:10 Thirsk)

Apprentice Jockey Cieren Fallon is quickly creating a good reputation from himself. Following in the footsteps of his Dad, Kieren was never going to be easy but Fallon Jr is certainly making it seem that way so far.

He looks to have a great chance to enhance his great start in the saddle when he partners up with Holdenhurst in the last at Thirsk.

Fallon takes off a handy seven pound from the four-year-old grey, who was beaten just a neck into second on his return to turf at Brighton earlier this month.

His last win was back at Kempton in January, but considering that his trainer Bill Turner holds a 17% strike rate at Thirsk (18 wins from 105 runners), you’d have to give him a big chance with that valuable seven-pound claim.

One Forty Seven (7:20 Uttoxeter)

The jumps action is unlikely to blood a Cheltenham superstar at this time of year, but that doesn’t stop me from diving into some summer jumping.

The evening action from Uttoxeter could be under blue skies on Saturday, and that might just allow One Forty Seven to take the feature race on the card.

He was a course and distance winner on good ground back in March, and was also demoted to second after being first past the post here in 2016.

It’s clearly a track that brings out the best in him, so too for his trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies, who has had over 100 winners at Uttoxeter in his career.

Jockey Sam Twiston-Davies has also hit the half-century at the track, and recently won the Staffordshire Plate here with 8/1 shot, Cesar Et Rosalie.

That means there is certainly a lot in One Forty Seven’s favour, and he’d be well worth a second look, much like our NAP of the day.