Saturday Horse Racing Tips: Comic can collect at Musselburgh

There are a total of eight meetings set to take place across Britain and Ireland on a bumper Easter Saturday, five jump cards accompanied by three Flat fixtures.

The action gets underway at Carlisle (12:43), followed by Musselburgh, Haydock, Newton Abbot, Fairyhouse, Cork and Huntingdon. Wolverhampton stages a seven-race evening card starting at 17:15. Amongst our Saturday Racing Tips is one for trainer Andrew Balding, who makes his handicap debut off a potentially lenient mark.

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New customers only. Deposit via Debit Card & place first bet £10+ (1/1+) on Sports in 7 days. £30 Sports & £20 Acca Free Bets within 10 hrs of settlement. 7-day expiry. Eligibility, payment excl. & T&Cs Apply.

13:25 Musselburgh - Comic Hero @ 2/1

Andrew Balding has been hitting the target with regularity in recent weeks and has strong claims with his three runners on Musselburgh’s card, the first of which is COMIC HERO, who bids to supplement last month’s Kempton novice win on his handicap debut.

The three-year-old showed a good level of ability as a two-year-old, finishing placed over 6f at Salisbury and beaten a nose on his final start of the campaign at Newbury.

He justified odds-on favouritism upped to 7f at Kempton and, although forced to work for it,  runner-up franked the form when winning at Wolverhampton next time.

The selection is bred to get middle distances in times, so this step up to a mile should extract further improvement and he can exploit his opening mark of 78.

15:20 Haydock - The Flier Begley @ 9/1

Gary Hamner’s THE FLIER BEGLEY goes well at Haydock and looks overpriced at 16/1 ahead of his bid to repeat last year’s win in this veterans’ handicap chase.

The 11-year-old has not finished out of the first three in three visits to the Merseyside track and was particularly good in this corresponding race 12 months ago when he scored by six lengths.

Successful off a mark of 133 at Market Rasen last summer, he’s now down to 132 and shaped as if he was about to hit form when second behind a potentially smart young hurdler, Hillberry Hill, trained by Kim Bailey and Mat Nicholls, over hurdles at Southwell last month. 

He should have something like his optimum underfoot conditions and Benjamin Macey, who was aboard at Southwell, again takes off a valuable 5lb.

19:30 Wolverhampton - Codiak @ 15/8

The Ed Bethell-trained CODIAK enjoyed a profitable winter and likely remains a step ahead of the handicapper, despite his latest 2lb rise. 

The four-year-old has shown a good level of ability from the outset, running to Racing Post Ratings of 75 and 78 on his first two starts, the latter when second in a Hamilton novice over 1m3f last June.

Touched off on his handicap debut over 1m6f at Redcar off an official mark of 75 in November, he opened his account in impressive fashion over Saturday’s course-and-distance on his return to novice company the following month and doubled his tally off 82 at Southwell in January.

He’s now up to 84, but he recorded a career-best figure of 89 when last seen and likely has more improvement to come, particularly back on Tapeta.

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