Newbury and Newcastle grab the TV limelight on Saturday afternoon courtesy of the excellent Coral Gold Cup and Fighting Fifth Hurdle cards. However, the races shown live on ITV are but six of 29 contests held in Britain and Ireland on a packed Saturday afternoon.
Here, we turn our attention away from the headline acts and pick out three lower-key runners in the non-ITV early-price races.
12:07, Newbury – Play Coral ‘Racing-Super-Series’ For Free Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle
Dan Skelton’s hat-trick-seeking mare, Listentoyourheart, heads the betting for this Listed 2m½f contest following an impressive win over course and distance earlier in the month. She relished the good ground that day but seems likely to face significantly slower conditions here and is zero from two on soft ground.
Sansrisk has also won her past two outings but gets a 5lb penalty for her Grade 3 win at Down Royal last time, and has also shown her best form on quicker ground.
The one to be on is the Paul Nicholls hurdles debutante, Jubilee Alpha, who showed an excellent level of form in Bumpers. Having scored easily on debut at Wincanton, she then finished second in the big Grade 2 at Aintree. She was no match for the talented Diva Luna in the closing stages that day but coped with the soft ground well and finished three lengths clear of Listentoyourheart, who crossed the line in sixth.
Recommended Bet: Jubilee Alpha @ 3/1 (generally available)
1:15, Newbury – Coral ‘We’re Here For It’ Novices’ Hurdle
Whilst “only” a Class 3 affair, this 2m4½f contest has been landed by a number of runners who have gone on to scale the heights, including Santini, Bravemansgame, and Stay Away Fay.
Califet En Vol, Silver Thorn, and French Ship all arrive with high hopes following solid wins, but if there is a star in this lineup, we suspect it is the Dan Skelton-trained The New Lion.
A full brother to Kateira, who scored in Grade 3 company last season and finished an excellent second in the Grade 1 Mersey Novices’ Hurdle, this five-year-old has impressed us greatly in two starts to date. Way too good in his Bumper last season, he tanked through the race on his hurdles bow before breezing past a Paul Nicholls-trained Point to Point winner in the straight. With that effort coming on soft ground, conditions look to be in his favour and he can take this before moving into Graded company.
Recommended Bet: The New Lion to win @ 4/5 (generally available)
1:55, Fairyhouse – WillowWarm Hurdle
There are a host of interesting runners in this 2m Grade 3 event. None more so than Anzadam who makes his debut for Willie Mullins following two wins in bottomless conditions in France. He falls into the “could be anything” category but will need to be a good bit above average to see off the Gordon Elliott-trained Kala Conti.
Winning two of four starts in her first season for the yard, the pick of those efforts saw her master the highly regarded Willie Mullins mare Kargese in the Grade 2 South Dublin Juvenile Hurdle. She managed only fifth behind that rival in the Grade 1Spring Juvenile Hurdle but did well to go down by under 3l, having made a bad blunder at the fifth hurdle.
Fast forward to the current season and Kala Conti was expected to need the run when dropped into handicap company at Down Royal. A lack of fitness looked likely to cost her turning into the straight, but she powered home once getting her second wind to score by 1¾l. With that run under her belt, and having lined up in hotter company last season, she is fancied to prove hard to beat.
Recommended Bet: Kala Conti to win @ 9/4 (generally available)
A £2.50 Trixie on the above three runners at the listed prices returns £123.63 if all three win.
Jack Hartman
A lover of all sports, Jack has spent the last decade covering some of the biggest and best events on the planet. Living and breathing sport every day, he loves nothing better than bringing the excitement of events to his readers.
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