Saturday’s Horse Racing Tips: Summerghand can finally get his head in front

This Saturday offers up a tipster’s paradise with numerous big-field handicaps littered across the afternoon cards at Ripon, Newbury, Newmarket and Doncaster. With good discipline and selectivity, profit can be secured with just one or two winners.

I want to begin by focusing on the Great St Wilfred (3.20 Ripon) as it has proved to be a pretty lucky race for me in the last decade or so. 

The draw is pretty crucial in this event as they always split into at least two groups. Trends dictate that stands’ side is generally the place to be with seven of the last ten winners racing on that portion of the track and, given most of the early pace players have been allocated double-figure stalls, it looks likely that a high draw will be beneficial again. 

Those who dig a little deeper into trends will see that prominent racers also have a brilliant record. Since 2016, six of the eight winners have earned the race comment ‘made all’ while the two anomalies were in the first three after the first two furlongs. With that in mind, horses like Mr Wagyu and Wobwobwob have to be strongly considered.

However, I’m going to gravitate away from speed horses in this year’s renewal as I’ve been waiting for a good opportunity to bet Summerghand and it has transpired here. David O’Meara’s veteran sprinter has captured the hearts of many racing fans over the years and it would be great if he could snatch another big-race success.

He has generally struggled in top-level handicaps this season, but there are one or two pieces of form that make him the clear standout in a field of this nature and he has been blessed with a good draw in stall 18. If he can repeat the performance he showed in the Bunbury Cup, for example, then he would just need a clear run to win this and I’m keen to give him one last chance at around 7/1.

The issue is that a clear run is far from guaranteed as they tend to race tightly and congregate right up against the rail at Ripon, so Danny Tudhope will need to be at his best. But Summerghand has a clear class edge, he’s down to a mark of 89 (13lb lower than for his last victory), and he has performed admirably in all five outings at Ripon during his career.

My other two bets will be at Newbury, starting with Zabriskie Point in the 0-100 7f handicap (3.00) for trainer Charlie Hills. This gelding hinted at his talent with several good runs in his juvenile campaign, but he is yet to build on those performances this season after a couple of midfield efforts at Newmarket and Goodwood.

Although his RPRs may not have increased, Zabriskie Point has certainly checked the ‘visually eye catching’ box. He was right up there in the vanguard for a long way at Newmarket on his return to action despite not handling the preliminaries very well and racing keenly in the first half of the race, and he sauntered into contention last time at Goodwood before just lacking a final punch.

I’m of the opinion that his fitness was still under question last time out and I’m hopeful that we’ll see a primed Zabriskie Point as he returns for his third start off the layoff on Saturday. There is plenty of pace in the race, which should help his cause as he boasts a high cruising speed, while his draw in stall 13 should enable him to race on or near the stands’ side rail. 

The closing 1m2f handicap (5.15) at Newbury features a perplexing bunch of three-year-olds, all of whom are yet unproven at the distance and the majority are trying to bounce back from below-par efforts last time out. 

Midair, T’Challa and Golden West should all be capable of winning off their current marks but they have been disappointing recently, while Richard Hannon’s Voyage and Houstonn are hard to assess - the former hasn’t shown much since his debut and the latter returns off a very short absence.  

Then you have Ville Natale, who has never run on turf, and Ciro Di Marzio, who is being fitted with first-time blinkers and a tongue-tie as connections seek a big jolt of improvement. In truth, none of those are convincing and, although I’m fully aware that no result here would be a surprise, I’ll be chucking a few quid at the improving Markoon.

This son of Kingman beat Midair in a Kempton novice event last year and returned to the track with a game success at Newmarket in July. That form hasn’t been boosted with the runner-up being smashed at short odds since, but I liked the way he moved through the race and fought all the way to the line.

William Haggas’ horses are in fine fettle right now (32% in the last fortnight) and Markoon’s opening mark of 95 seems fair. The trip isn’t sure to suit as he’s by Kingman, but his dam won the 2019 Pretty Polly over 1m2f and that increases my belief that he will stay.

Saturday’s Horse Racing Tips

Zabriskie Point (3.00 Newbury) @ 7/1
Summerghand (3.20 Ripon) @ 13/2
Markoon (5.15 Newbury) @ 15/8