It’s Trials Day at Cheltenham this Saturday so plenty of clues to look out for with this being the final meeting at Prestbury Park before the Festival in March.
The Paddy Power Cotswold Chase (2.25) is one of the highlights, but in recent years it’s been a graveyard race for favourites – with ALL of the last sixteen market leaders losing!
We’ve also top action at Doncaster and the ITV cameras are there to take in three races too. The Sky Bet Chase (3.15) is their main event – a race trainer Alan King has landed twice in the last four runnings and looks to have another strong hand this year with three runners .
As always, we’ll be highlighting our TOP FOUR trends to look for from the ITV Racing and putting them in a big-priced ‘Cracker Acca’ – plus, giving you the ‘best of the rest’ trends from around the other tracks this Saturday.
Plus – don’t forget, you can also get more help finding the winner for all this Saturday’s races on our Free Horse Racing Tips page.
(Pays £2,750 for a £5 stake)
1.50 Cheltenham: Philip Hobbs and popular owner Mrs Diana Whatley have teamed-up to win two of the last nine runnings of this race, so their GARDE LA VICTOIRE, who is a past course winner, looks worthy of an interest at a nice price. He’s not getting any younger at eleven-years-old, but one of those previous Hobbs winners was also this age, so it can be done. A return run at Ascot last month would have blown away the cobwebs after a long time off the track and a dropping mark of 141 is starting to look dangerous, despite his advancing years.
2.40 Doncaster: It looks a slightly tougher race than last year but it’s still hard to get away from LADY BUTTONS, who landed this prize twelve months ago. This popular, and very versatile, ten-year-old mixes it up over both fences and hurdles but is back over the smaller obstacles here after winning a Mares’ Chase at her beloved Doncaster. Buttons has become a hard nut to crack at this venue – she’s raced at Town Moor five times and has won four of those (last four).
3.00 Cheltenham: This has been a kind race to the Nicky Henderson yard with three wins since 2011, including having won the last two runnings. With that in mind, their TIME FLIES BY looks interesting, with Barry Geraghty, who has also ridden the winner of this race three times in the last nice years, doing the steering. This five-year was down the field on his hurdles debut at Ascot last time but reportedly lost a shoe that day so had an excuse. He’s also a NH Flat winner here at Cheltenham, but the step up in trip to 2m4 1/2f this time could be the key after looking a tad one-paced over shorter.
3.35 Cheltenham: It’s actually quite surprising that the last ‘back-to-back’ winner of the Cleeve Hurdle was Lady Rebecca in 2000 and 2001, but really that should change this year with PAISLEY PARK hotly-tipped to continue his dominance in this sphere and follow-up his success in this race from last season. The Emma Lavelle-trained eight-year-old has now won his last six starts and is the current champion in this division after landing the Stayers’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival last March. He returned with a hard-fought win at Newbury in the Long Distance Hurdle in November, but was an easy twelve length winner of this race last year and is the clear one for the rest to aim at. Another solid win here will surely see his odds firm-up for the Stayers’ Hurdle in a few months.
(Pays £2,750 for a £5 stake)
2.25 Cheltenham: Trainer Mick Channon has a 27% record with his chasers at the track.
4.10 Cheltenham: Trainer Chris Gordon has won two of the last five runnings.
12.20 Doncaster: Trainer Ben Pauling has a 30% record with his hurdlers at the track.
12.55 Doncaster: Trainer Nicky Henderson has a 31% record with his chasers at the track and has won two of the last seven runnings.
3.15 Doncaster: Trainer Nicky Richards has a 36% record with his chasers at the track.
1.20 Uttoxeter: Trainer Dr Richard Newland has a 34% record with his hurdlers at the track.
3.05 Uttoxeter: Trainer John Groucott has a 42% record with his chasers at the track.
3.40 Uttoxeter: Cave Top won the race in 2019.
4.15 Uttoxeter: Trainer Alastair Ralph has a 26% record with his hurdlers at the track.
1.10 Lingfield: Trainer Neil King has a 35% record with his four-year-olds or older at the track.
1.45 Lingfield: Trainer Archie Watson has a 22% record with his three-year-olds at the track.
2.20 Lingfield: Jockey Luke Morris has ridden two of the last three winners.
2.55 Lingfield: Trainer John Gosden has a 35% record with his three-year-olds at the track.
3.30 Lingfield: Trainer Roger Charlton has a 24% record with his three-year-olds at the track (O’Meara 24%, Haggas 23%)
4.05 Lingfield: Aguerooo won this race in 2019.
Every LIVE Saturday race covered on ITV can be found on our ITV Racing Tips section, with runner-by-runner previews for each contest.