Leading commentator Simon Holt has three selections for Saturday's competitive racing at Haydock Park and Musselburgh, including Society Red.
Recommended bets
1pt win Ballybolley in 2.05 Haydock at best morning price
1pt win Brotherly Company in 3.15 Haydock at best morning price
2pts win Society Red in 3.00 Musselburgh at best morning price
On one of the more low-key Saturdays in the racing calendar, Haydock stages finals in what is known as the 'Challenger' series which provides valuable incentive for mid-ranking hurdlers and chasers.
Last year's Challenger Middle Distance Chase Final was won in runaway fashion by BALLYBOLLEY who relished the good ground that day and, under similar conditions, he looks well poised for a repeat off just a 5lb higher mark.
The Nigel Twiston-Davies-trained gelding continued his good form into the early part of the season, scoring at Wetherby and Huntingdon, but seems quite ground dependent and was twice beaten on the soft before finishing fourth on a better surface at Kempton last time.
However, this will almost certainly have been Ballybolley's main target again and, with most of his career wins on left-handed tracks, he seems sure to mount a bold bid.
The danger is probably Some Buckle, a promising horse in his younger days who won over the course and distance for Paul Nicholls just over a year ago but was lightly raced and lost his form subsequently only to return from a three-month break to win at Stratford earlier in the month.
Later, BROTHERLY COMPANY is another fancied to enjoy the ground conditions as he attempts to turn the tables on his recent Stratford conqueror Midnight Maestro in the Challenger Two-Mile Hurdle Final.
Harry Fry's charge gets a 4lb pull for that four-length defeat but was returning from a break that day when the soft ground would not have been ideal.
In contrast to the selection, Midnight Maestro has seemed best so far with plenty of cut underfoot and, with Brotherly Company likely to come on a bit for that run, the tables can be turned.
At Musselburgh, SOCIETY RED is fancied at a decent price in the totepoolliveinfo.com Royal Mile Handicap.
Three-year-old handicaps such as this are notoriously tricky at this time of year but Richard Fahey's colt did little wrong in four starts as a juvenile concluding with a neck defeat by the consistent Mutawatheb upped to this trip at Doncaster in October.
With the mile a slight question for several of his rivals, from most of whom Society Red receives plenty of weight, I was surprised to see him at double-figure odds in the bookmaker lists.
Posted at 1030 BST on 14/04/17.
