ITV Racing Tips: Three for Saturday’s live action

The festive action rolls on this Saturday, with Grade 1 action in both Britain and Ireland featuring on a bumper ITV package.

Among my ITV Racing tips for Saturday is one for trainer Ben Pauling, whose record on this card at Newbury has been strong for many years.

14:20 Newbury - Henry's Friend @ 4/1

Ben Pauling has had two seconds and two thirds in the Mandarin Handicap Chase since he last won the race with Silvergrove in 2015. HENRY'S FRIEND has loads of good course form and can set right the trainer's unlucky run in a race he clearly targets.

Henry's Friend won a novices' handicap chase on this card last year. That was the first leg of a hat-trick that culminated with a win in the Grade 2 Reynoldstown Novices' Chase at Ascot.

After a run to get fit on his reappearance this year, Henry's Friend ran a good race to finish fifth, beaten just over seven lengths, in the Coral Gold Cup here four weeks ago.

He shaped that day as either needing a step up in trip, or a slight drop in grade. He gets the latter here, and with everything else that is in his favour he commands serious respect.

14:35 Leopardstown - Inothewayurthinkin each-way @ 33/1

The question of who to pick between Fact To File and Galopin Des Champs is a tough one. Personally, I would be siding towards the young challenger Fact To File, but a better bet on the day, which does not require much of an outlay, is INOTHEWAYURTHINKIN each-way.

This horse shot into the Gold Cup picture when winning at Cheltenham and Aintree in the spring, the former by an easy eight-lengths in the Kim Muir and the latter in a Grade 1.

Like Galopin Des Champs and Fact To File, he ran in the John Durkan on his reappearance. He was never likely to be suited by 2m3½f at Punchestown, as he is much more of an old-school Gold Cup type.

This 3m trip at Leopardstown is much more like it. It would be asking a lot for Inothewayurthinkin to beat Fact To File and Galopin Des Champs here, but if he is to justify his Gold Cup odds he will not be too far away and that could carry him to third spot and a tidy each-way return.

15:10 Leicester - Champagnesuperover @ 11/1

Leicester may be an unfamiliar venue for the ITV cameras, but it is home turf for trainer Olly Murphy. Through his training career, he has saddled 24 winners here from 86 runners. That is a healthy strike-rate of 28 per-cent, compared with around 18 per-cent for Murphy overall.

There have been minor signs of late that CHAMPAGNESUPEROVER returning to something like his useful novice form of late and this could be the day everything clicks. He shaped well in spite of what was claimed to be a respiratory noise at Bangor in November. Then, having had corrective wind surgery, he unseated at the first last time.

Running him at Leicester, and putting Sean Bowen on top for the first time since the spring, suggests more is expected from Champagnesuperover this time. He is so well handicapped by now that even a small step back in the right direction could be enough.

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