Saturday Racing Tips: Owen’s best bets includes a 7/2 Nap

Another Saturday, another superb set of races to enjoy. Haydock hosts the first Grade 1 of the British National Hunt season, the Betfair Chase, while it's Morgiana day over in Ireland. There's also Graded action at Ascot, while they go at Huntingdon, Newcastle and Wolverhampton too.

I've studied the cards and landed on four to form my Saturday racing tips, which includes a 7/2 Nap from Haydock.

12:00 Punchestown - Santo Sospir @ 1/1

Gordon Elliott's novice hurdles are improving, a lot, for the run, which makes SANTO SOSPIR of strong appeal for this 2m3½f maiden hurdle at Punchestown.

The four-year-old son of Motivator, who should appreciate the step up in trip and conditions, won a bumper at the track back in February on heavy ground and under the circumstances, his fourth on hurdling debut at Wexford wasn't too bad.

The winner looks a nice type for Paul Nolan and the runner-up, albeit a serial loser, has a rating of 118. I think the third and fifth might prove to be useful too.

If he improves as much as some of his stablemates have over the past few weeks, he should take a bit of beating in this company.

12:40 Haydock - Gentleman Bill @ 7/2

On Merseyside, GENTLEMAN BILL is fancied to open his account over fences.

Olive Greenall & Josh Guerriero's lightly-raced seven-year-old was beginning to look quite useful around this time last year, but his season petered out in the spring.

Connections decided to send the point-to-point winner over fences this term and he made a highly-encouraging at Aintree last month. He travelled strongly under jockey Charlie Todd, who's replaced by Craig Nichol on Saturday, but began to tire after jumping the second last in front. He should improve significantly for the run, as he did last season.

The form of that Aintree race looks strong, too. I thought the winner, Jordans Cross, was booked for victory before falling at the last in a handicap at Cheltenham's November Meeting and the runner-up Spadestep looks a nice type for Lucinda Russell & Michael Scudamore.

He could be a 130+ horse in my opinion, so I'm expecting a big run at the very least off his unchanged mark of 123.

14:45 Punchestown - Sticwiththeprocess @ 5/2

Back across the Irish Sea we go for Ted Walsh's STICWITHTHEPROCESS in the Albert Bartlett Triple Crown Series Qualifier.

The five-year-old son of Blue Bresil, in the famous green and gold silks of JP McManus, was subject to a bit of a gamble at Fairyhouse earlier this month and he duly obliged, albeit not without a slight scare at the business end.

He idled after being left in the lead at the last and the eventual runner-up was then allowed to bridge the gap quite significantly. I think he's a good bit better than the bare form suggests.

Cheekpieces should help him to concentrate better when it matters and if the goal isn't just to qualify for the Punchestown finale worth over 50k euros, he should be hard to beat off an unchanged mark of 114.

His narrow defeat to Grann's Boy, who is 20lbs higher today, at Fairyhouse back in April earned him a place in my tracker, for I believe this to be a very well-handicapped individual who will surely win races this season. Hopefully, that's on Saturday.

15:35 Haydock - Major Fortune @ 6/1

What could be a huge afternoon at Haydock for Dan and Harry Skelton, who hope Grey Dawning can go one better in this year's Betfair Chase, can end in style courtesy of MAJOR FORTUNE.

The seven-year-old was a highly-progressive hurdler a couple of seasons ago, rising from a mark of 79 to 118 in six starts, but he failed to kick on last term.

Connections switched tack midway through the season, sending him over fences in February, which yielded mixed results. He was poor at Warwick and Newbury, but ran respectably at Leicester and Plumpton.

As it goes, the latter two were over 2m6½ and three 3m1½ respectively, as opposed to 2m-2m4f. Clearly, the son of Soldier Of Fortune wants a trip.

He gets that in this 0-145 handicap over 3m1½f after a fine return to action at Cheltenham's Showcase Meeting last month, when finishing fourth of 14 behind Zurich, Crest Of Fortune and Double Powerful. That's a good bit of form and if he improves for the run, as many of Skelton's have, he should be dangerous off a pound lower.

In a recent stable tour with Sporting Life, the Rowland Meyrick at Wetherby on Boxing Day was suggested as a potential target for the selection. If he's to line up in that, he'll want to be winning here.

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