Saturday Horse Racing Tips: Tom Collins has four selections to follow

Take me back to the summer - the luxuries of feeling your fingers for longer than ten minutes after you step outside and guaranteed horse racing feels have been long forgotten.

The recent cold snap has caused a number of abandonments this week and several fixtures are under threat on Saturday, but hopefully the second-day of Cheltenham’s International meeting gets the go ahead as there isn’t much quality elsewhere.

Cheltenham’s feature is the December Gold Cup (1.50), in which a maximum of 15 runners will head to post in a bid to plunder the £74,035 first prize. The brilliant Coole Cody won this race last year by beating Zanza and the subsequently ill-fated Midnight Shadow into the places, and this renewal possesses a similar level of talent.

Paul Nicholls’ Il Ridoto heads the market - and rightly so. I’m a fan of this five-year-old and believe he has a couple of big-field handicap chases in him, so much so that I put him up as my horse to follow this year in SBK’s Ultimate Jumps Preview podcast. 

Il Ridoto almost cashed in at the first time of asking at the November meeting here, but eventually faded into fourth after travelling well into the straight. That was his first run since wind surgery and a summer break, so further improvement is likely, especially given he’s only a five-year-old. 

This horse has a penchant for this track and will be seen at his best throughout his career when he’s allowed to chase a fast pace. Perhaps some dig underfoot would see him in a slightly better light, but that’s not enough to put me off. Il Ridoto is the first of two runners on my betslip.

The other is the Venetia Williams-trained Frero Banbou, who shouldn’t mind the ground given his two most recent efforts have come on a similarly quick surface. This French import finished eight lengths behind Il Ridoto at Newbury last year, but he progressed throughout the spring and put up a career-best effort when third in the Grand Annual at the Cheltenham festival.

His two performances this year, both of which have come at Ascot, have been creditable. Frero Banbou was ridden far more aggressively than usual when last seen, and he jumped brilliantly on the whole. He lacked that sixth gear in the closing stages and a step up in trip to 2m4½f could unlock further progression.

The Grade 2 Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle (3.00) lacks the quantity of horses that the December Gold Cup possesses, but there certainly isn’t an absence of quality. Plenty of punters will be siding with Outlaw Peter, who has won two of his last three for Nicholls, but I’m a big fan of Weveallbeencaught and believe he’s the best bet on the card.

Nigel Twiston-Davies has hinted that this could be his Gold Cup horse for the future, and he’s done little so far to calm those beliefs. Wevallbeencaught beat a nice sort on bumper debut at Newbury last year, and was pitched into the deep end on hurdling debut when third at the November meeting.

The winner of that race was Hermes Allen - a special-looking talent who dominated from the front - while runner-up Music Drive was fit after two runs in Ireland. Weveallbeencaught was beaten 10-and-a-half lengths, but stayed on eyecatchingly well up the hill over an inadequate trip.

Twiston-Davies has wasted no time in stepping this five-year-old up to three miles, which should be the catalyst for a big jolt of improvement, and his jumping is only going to get better with practice. He should just have too much class for his opposition.

If Cheltenham is called off our attention will be switched to the all-weather before England’s crucial quarter-final match-up with France, and the only runner that catches my eye is Cariad Angel, who will make her fourth start in the nursery at Newcastle (4.00).

Cariad Angel showed marked improvement for the switch to the all-weather - she didn’t seem to handle soft ground on her first two starts - when a clearcut runner-up behind a talented William Haggas-trained filly last time out, and looks leniently treated off a mark of 73 on handicap debut.

Saturday Horse Racing Tips

Il Ridoto (1.50 Cheltenham) @ 6.6
Frero Banbou (1.50 Cheltenham) @ 10
Weveallbeencaught (3.00 Cheltenham) @ 2.62
Cariad Angel (4.00 Newcastle) @ 5.2