Welcome to the busiest day of the week for horse racing followers and we have a thrilling Saturday of UK and Irish meetings planned. The schedule is made up of Ascot, Haydock, Hexham, Lingfield, Nottingham, Thirsk, Warwick, Cork and Naas. Here are our May 11 Horse Racing betting tips.
There’s also a healthy presence of international racing designed to catch your eye, with legs of note taking place in France, Germany, South Africa, America, Canada and Australia. Place your bets on your favourite races of the day and throw a few together to create a multiple, such as a Lucky 15 or Heinz. Small stakes for big returns is the aim.
As followers have come to expect, our team have run over the all-important form and figures, picking through the betting before offering our views on the best bets of Saturday. The standout meet of the day goes at Haydock where a bumper eight-race card takes us from a competitive handicap hurdle at 2.00pm through to the 5.55pm handicap chase. There’s one grade race included in the line-up and that’s where we start.
Swinton Handicap Hurdle
The Pertemps Network sponsored Swinton Handicap Hurdle is a Grade 3 due to post at 3.10pm and sees a strong field run over 1m 7f in a bid to win the £56,000 prize money promised to the champion. We have some instantly recognisable names in the frame for this contest, including leading trainers Nicky Henderson and Dan Skelton.
This race was won by Silver Streak for Evan Williams and Adam Wedge 12 months ago, but we’re set for a new champion and a number of runners hold strong claims to the trophy. Nicky Henderson grips a strong hand for this renewal and, at the time of writing, has three entries in the mix – Mister Fisher, Jenkins and Dream Du Grand Val.
Fishing for a Win
The one we’re pinning our hopes on is Mister Fisher – 6/1 at Bet365. The Irish-bred five-year-old is sure to be popular in the betting ring. He brings a career record of three wins and a second from six starts and is viewed by connections as a horse with plenty of scope for improvement this season. He made a winning debut at Kempton in March of last year and won three of his first five.
That success includes back-to-back wins at Kempton in a novices’ hurdle over two miles and, most recently, around Haydock in a 1m 7f novices hurdle, shaping him as a course and distance winner. That means he stands out against the majority of this field and if we get the kind of improvement we’re expecting from Mister Fisher here, he’s sure to go close.
Our Tip: Mister Fisher – 6/1 at Bet365
Derby Trial Stakes
The Derby Trial Stakes is the standout of a seven-race card on the turf of Lingfield and we’re expecting a 10-runner field. A listed contest over 1m 3f, we pick apart an interesting field that has kept punters guessing. Bookmakers are certain they have found their winner and that is reflected in the early betting for this race.
The antepost markets were dominated by Anthony Van Dyck and the same runner will continue to attract attention up until the off time. The three-year-old colt is another who hasn’t shown his true potential just yet but we’re confident that will come in the near future. Bookies expect we’ll see an example of what he has in reserve on Saturday.
Trained by Aiden O’Brien and a product of the great Galileo bloodline, he arrives at track with a CV made up of three wins and two placed efforts from six starts. That has impressed followers of the form no end.
He was last seen running at Churchill Downs in the Breeders Cup Juvenile Turf on November of last year. A bold move to put him in an international race of that nature but the team got nothing out of it other than valuable experience. He finished way down the pecking order, never looking like a horse who could go and win the contest. Connections learned a thing or two about their star and we should see a better horse for the experience.
Pablo Escobarr Worth a Shot
Anthony Van Dyck hasn’t stuck his head in front to win a race since scoring the Group 2 Futurity Stakes at the Curragh last summer, but he has been racing in good company since and has a real chance of making an overdue return to winning ways here. He’s available at 5/4 with William Hill which looks on the short side and that, coupled with the lack of wins, forces us to look further down the pecking order for one at a bigger price.
The runner to carry our stake money in the Derby Trial Stakes is Pablo Escobarr who can be trusted at 8/1 with William Hill. That’s a bigger price than we think he deserves to be, and each-way backers will get 1/5 the odds a place 1-2-3, which offers a bit of a safety net to those after a decent pay-out.
The William Haggas trained colt is a three-year-old with just one win to his name from five starts but he has finished as runner-up three times and we’re confident he’ll go close again here. The danger is he’s one who will get used to following a rival home, but we think it’s more a case of waiting for the penny to drop. When it does, he’ll be a well-bred horse with stamina to burn and a turn of foot that’ll see him match some of the best on the circuit.
His sole success to date came when scoring a maiden stakes at Goodwood over 1m 1f last summer. He was sent off a 4/7 favourite that day and we’re happy to see a much bigger price available here.