Saturday's Horse Racing Tips: Tom Collins looks to follow up last week’s 8/1 winner

We are just a couple of days away from the biggest domestic flat racing meeting of the year in Royal Ascot, so this weekend’s fare unsurprisingly lacks a bit of quality. However, my introduction to last week's column was very similar yet we walked away with healthy profit.

The Listed Race To The Ebor Grand Cup (15:00) at York is arguably the best contest on Saturday despite cutting up considerably since the initial entries. Just six horses remain after declarations, but you can make a solid enough case for five of them and therefore an open market is expected.

SBK traders have installed recent Epsom winner Relentless Voyager at the top of the betting, which is no surprise given the ease in which he ran away from his rivals two weeks ago. This gelding seems to be coming into his own now at the age of four, but he will need to take another step forward if he is to beat talented foes on a much more galloping track.

Real Dream is another interesting participant after he shook away the rust in a spin around Newmarket last month. Sir Michael Stoute’s five-year-old was sent off the prohibitive 3/1 favourite for the Jorvik Handicap at this venue last year and ran nicely to finish third. He backed that up with a decisive strike at Ascot, but then he disappointed in the Ebor and his two subsequent starts have lacked a spark. 

Ryan Moore was booked to ride at the entry stage on Tuesday when I first looked at this race, but he has now jumped ship to Klondike with Oisin Orr filling his place. Although Klondike is part-owned by Coolmore’s Magnier and Tabor, Moore’s switch fills me with confidence and I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw a career-best from William Haggas’ runner this weekend.

I thought he shaped with great promise in a number of starts last campaign, especially when second behind Gregory at Goodwood, yet Haggas has always said that they’re going to go slowly with him with progression being the main goal for 2024.

He was a little cold on the board ahead of his reappearance at this track in May, but he ran encouragingly to take fourth. It looked like he took a blow two furlongs from home before staying on again as they approached the line, and this step up in trip should therefore suit. Klondike doesn’t have much to find on figures so hopefully he can record his second career victory.

I’m tempted to bet a couple of horses on the Sandown card, especially Ed Walker’s London Gold Cup fifth Into Battle in the opener, but I will look to keep the powder as dry as possible with Royal Ascot around the corner. 



That being said, Mount Teide is surely too well handicapped to ignore in the 7f 0-95 handicap (15:15) for Andrew Balding and David Probert after what can only be described as an effortless strike at Chepstow just over two weeks ago.

His prior runs saw him finish an extremely eyecatching fourth on debut behind the now 104-rated Kikkuli, before filling the runners-up berth in a Newbury novice event that was chock-full of well-bred and highly regarded types. 

I actually believe that Mount Teide shaped like the best horse in that race despite the fact that he didn’t appear to have any excuses on initial viewing. That’s because he sat close to a solid early pace that collapsed late in the day while also racing far off the favoured stands’ side rail. With a slightly better trip, I’m sure he would have been in the winner’s enclosure.

With experience comes improvement and Mount Teide has already begun to show that with progressive RPRs of 85, 87 and 90, yet the handicapper has awarded him an opening mark of just 89. With even the slightest step forward, he should prove pretty hard to catch.

Recommended Bets:

Klondike (15:00 York) @ 7/2
Mount Teide (15:15 Sandown) @ 3/1