Saturday Racing Tips: Skeltons ready for battle at Kelso

Despite it being the penultimate weekend before the 2026 Cheltenham Festival, with the best of the best wrapped up in cotton wool at home, there's some fine racing to enjoy on Saturday.

My Saturday racing tips comprises of three fancies from Kelso and Navan.

13:50 Navan - Royal Hillsborough @ 13/8

I'm hoping Galileo Dame is overbet in the second race at Navan - a mares' maiden hurdle over two miles.

Joseph O'Brien's five-year-old is rated 129 and was runner-up in a Grade 1 as a juvenile before finishing sixth in the Mares' Novices' Hurdle at last year's Cheltenham Festival, but she's 1-16 under rules (0-5 over jumps) and her most recent effort was one of her worst.

This is a significant drop in class, so it would be no great surprise if she won, but she's hard to trust and I'd rather be with ROYAL HILLSBOROUGH.

Stuart Crawford's six-year-old daughter of Conduit obliged on racecourse debut 12 months ago and emerged with plenty of credit behind a couple of smart types in Oldschool Outlaw and Keep Him Company - among the favourites for the Mares' Novices' Hurdle and the Champion Bumper respectively - before the turn of the year.

She was extremely unlucky not to win a Grade 2 at the Dublin Racing Festival last time out, after her jockey mistook the winning post, and now she goes jumping.

If she takes to it - she's a half-sister to Fergal O'Brien's Perfect Candidate who was rated 156 in his heyday - she's very much the one to put it up to Galileo Dame. If the latter doesn't perform, the selection ought to be very hard to beat.

14:15 Kelso - Starmount @ 10/3

Next on my radar is a Grade 2 novices' hurdle over 2m2f at Kelso.

I'm very keen on STARMOUNT here for one the hottest partnerships in the game - Ben Pauling and Ben Jones.

The six-year-old Mount Nelson gelding, a £82k buy from the point-to-point scene, was a good winner on debut at Wetherby in early December before he was highly-tried in the G1 Formby Novices' Hurdle at Aintree on Boxing Day.

That was probably a step too far, too soon, and I can't imagine he enjoyed racing on the flat for extended periods due to omitted hurdles. Put a line through it.

A month later he returned to Wetherby for an ordinary affair he won by 12 lengths, and now he's raised back up in class. He should be more prepared this time.

It's not the strongest Grade 2, either. His main market rival, Le Beau Madrik, concedes three pounds per the race conditions. On all known form, I think that's a big ask.

Montemares, The Last Cloud, The Blue Room and Co. all have plenty to find too as far as I'm concerned. I think Starmount deserves to be a good bit shorter in the betting.

14:55 Kelso - Quaviste @ 5/1

Finally, I'm backing QUAVISTE to secure another big prize for the Skeltons in the Morebattle Hurdle.

The six-year-old son of Authorised was a fancy of mine on handicap debut at Kempton last month, but he was never really in the race and my immediate thought afterwards was: "What's his target?" It looks like I've got an answer.

I'm adamant he's better than his mark of 113 and can prove it in Scotland.

A lot of his form suggests as much - and there's a good chance we're yet to see the best of him. Far from it, probably.

I can see him attracting plenty of support, perhaps even going off favourite, so take the odds now is my advice.

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