Timeform TV Focus: ITV racing tips on Saturday

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Ascot

1.50 No Bet Advised

It’s sorry times for British racing when three of the four runners in a graduation chase at Ascot are trained in Ireland. In fairness, the one with the best chance is the one British-trained runner Iroko, a rapidly improving young chaser with the potential to win plenty of good races over the next couple of seasons. The issue with him backing to do that here is that he’s just 5/4 up against a trio of very smart Irish chasers. Admittedly, none of the three are bombproof in terms of their profile, but at the same time Iroko will likely need to be properly on his game to account for them and, in our opinion, there’s insufficient in his price on Friday afternoon to justify going in, especially as there’s more than a chance this could get tactical and Jonjo O’Neill Jnr is, to put it kindly, not a rider you really want to be backing at short prices over fences.

2.25 1 pt – 5 Hiddenvalley Lake

Strong Leader is an obvious favourite for the Long Walk but he does look about the right price. Indeed, that comment applies to several, but perhaps not Hiddenvalley Lake, who is second top on the Timeform ratings yet has at least four ahead of him in the betting. He’s very lightly raced for his age after just seven outings and his most recent run, when third in the Liverpool Hurdle, was his best yet. It’s true that he’s got nearly five lengths to make up with Strong Leader on that form, but Hiddenvalley Lake did appear to finish with a bit of running left that day, having been squeezed for room approaching the last. It’s not hard to envisage him improving a bit more this time around, and while he’s one of just two in this field lacking a recent run, it’s doubtful lack of fitness will be a major issue, especially with Henry de Bromhead’s horses in fine form.

3.00 0.5 pt – 5 Hartur d’Arc

It’s easy to see why Victtorino is favourite, as he’s a two-time C&D winner, including this from just 1 lb lower last year, represents the exceptional Venetia Williams, and shaped well when third in the Coral Gold Cup, but it’s hard to enthuse about prices shorter than 2/1. There’s nothing leaping out among the rest, but at as big as 14/1 it could be worth chancing Hartur d’Arc for Gavin Cromwell. He finished down the field in the Paddy Power on his return, but he didn’t have much going for him from out of the weights over a trip too short, and this is more suitable. Hartur d’Arc quickly improved on joining Cromwell towards the end of last season, winning his first two starts for the yard, including the Leinster National at Naas, and while he’ll need to improve to win this, he’s still unexposed both as a staying chaser and for his current stable.

3.35 1 pt – 9 Kabral du Mathan

Kabral du Mathan took his career record to three wins from as many starts when scoring in a handicap at Kempton on his reappearance, and while this is much tougher – it really is a cracking handicap full of interesting hurdlers – he strongly appeals as the type to go on progressing through the ranks. Kabral du Mathan had plenty in hand at the end of a well-run race that day, and a subsequent 8 lb rise might easily have been more. He’s top on Timeform ratings this time, and while he’s far from the only likely improver in the field, he might just be the pick of them in terms of overall potential.

Haydock

2.05 1 pt – 9 Jack’s Parrot

The standing of the Tommy Whittle has been on the slide for a while now and, so far as quality is concerned, this is an even lesser renewal than usual. It’s easy to make cases for the 2023 winner Famous Bridge and the revitalised East Street, but that’s why they’re the top two in the betting. At longer odds, Jack’s Parrot can be considered at the foot of the weights. He’s comfortably the youngest of these as a five-year-old but has plenty of chasing experience from his time in France and it’s still early days for him with his current yard. He showed plenty of stamina when winning back-to-back handicaps at Uttoxeter and Perth in the spring and it’s easy to forgive him a low-key return at Carlisle earlier in the month on account of it being his first start for seven months. His usual tongue tie is back on here and, all things considered, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that Jack’s Parrot is the one horse in the field that still has untapped potential.

2.40 1 pt – 3 Jilajone

There are more negatives than positives to be found when it comes to assessing the chances of most of these. Milldam looks high enough in the weights after a successful time of it last season, Admiralty House is likely to be too free, Bertie’s Ballet and Rewired simply haven’t been in top form so far this season, whilst Lune de La Mer might be interesting on account of being unexposed but hasn’t run for the best part of 20 months. This leaves us with Coventry and Jilajone, but there are concerns as to whether the former will cope with such a sharp track over what isn’t even a full 2m. Jilajone gets the nod almost by default then, but it’s not as if he hasn’t got good form claims even so. There’s no knocking any of his in-frame efforts so far this season, running into well-treated ones Double Powerful at Fontwell and Solar System at Warwick on his last couple of starts. Interestingly, the three horses that finished behind him at Warwick that have subsequently run again were all successful next time out, the only slight niggle about Jilajone’s chance being that he’s still to win a handicap after 11 attempts, on several occasions trading odds on in-running without getting the job done.

You can access the TV Focus selections and rationale at 5pm the evening before racing for £7.50 on the Timeform website.

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