Saturday Racing Tips: Kotari can get punters off to a flyer at Ascot

Flat racing holds sway across Britain and Ireland on Saturday with nine meetings taking place across the afternoon and into the evening. Punters can look forward to racing from Ascot, Haydock, Hexham, Leicester, Lingfield Park, Nottingham, Warwick, Cork and Naas.

Amongst my Saturday racing tips is one for the Gary & Josh Moore partnership who won his last two and should prove hard to beat in his search for a hat-trick.

13:30 Ascot - Kotari @ 7/2

The Moores have unlocked the key to KOTARI, and the five-year-old son of Nathaniel is likely to take all the beating when bidding for a hat-trick of victories in the opening 1m4f handicap under Jason Watson.

Unsuccessful over hurdles from October through to February, the return to the Flat brought about major improvement when landing a 1m2f handicap at Windsor off a mark of 73 on good ground last month.

Kotari was sent off a short price for a heavy ground 1m2f Salisbury handicap with a 4lb penalty on his back but absolutely bolted up. The assessor has raised him a further 5lb but he could prove hard to beat in his current mood.

14:05 Ascot - Rose Prick @ 8/1

Moving on to the following mile handicap on the straight course and although she hasn't seen the winner's enclosure since 2022, ROSE PRICK looks to have sound claims in the hands of Oisin Murphy for trainer Ed Walker.

The filly came back from a nine-month break to run a huge race when third in the Listed Snowdrop Fillies' Stakes at Kempton Park last month as a 50-1 outsider. She drops back into a handicap now.

Her mark of 92 could be steep enough considering she was fourth in a York handicap off a rating of 81 this time last year, but she still has few miles on the clock and is entitled to go close if she can repeat her most recent effort.

14:40 Ascot - Arabian Storm @ 12/1

As we saw with Desert Cop winning at the Craven Meeting recently, trainer Andrew Balding is a dab hand at improving one for a good handicap, and ARABIAN STORM is capable of running a huge race in the same colours in the 7f handicap.

The son of Kingman had subsequent Group 3 winner Military Order behind when runner-up on his debut at Newmarket in October 2022, and he got off the mark in a Newcastle maiden in May of last year.

Third to subsequent Group 1-placed Shouldvebeenaring in a Listed contest at Newmarket at the end of that month, Arabian Storm was off the track for the rest of the year so clearly had a few issues.

He was in need of the run when fifth of six runners in a Kempton Park handicap in March, and we are likely to see a much better showing on Saturday off 2lb lower back on turf.

Find more Horse Racing Tips here at Betfred Insights