Saturday’s Horse Racing Tips: Tom Collins has three selections for the flat fare

The return of Cheltenham will keep jumps racing fans happy this weekend. Although I love seeing the Cotswold course back on the menu, my modus operandi is to stick to the flat action for my punting until after the Breeders’ Cup so I hope you didn’t click the link to this article while looking for Cheltenham picks!

If the flat fare was mediocre then of course I would have branched out to Cheltenham, but we have some good contests to digest at Newbury and Doncaster and hopefully some more money to make. 

The latter venue plays host to the final Group 1 of the domestic season with the Vertem Futurity Trophy (2.40 Doncaster) taking centre stage. It looks like a pretty good and competitive renewal this year and I’m interested to see how Detain gets on for John and Thady Gosden at a pretty respectable price. That being said, I wouldn’t be necessarily willing to part with my cash unless the ground remains soft and there is no guarantee that will happen.

Instead, I’ll fire my Doncaster bullet in the 1m2f handicap (3.15) where the David Menuisier-trained Promethean interests me at a double-figure price. This son of Intello showed some promise in three novice starts in 2023 and he has built on that in his outings so far this term.

I thought he was exceptionally unlucky not to win over a mile at Newmarket on his penultimate run, where he was hampered badly at the start before going down fighting in a photo. He was similarly unlucky over this course and distance in September, too, when he was the only horse to make up significant ground from the rear.

Due to his closing style he requires something of a pace collapse to get involved in his races, but that may happen in Saturday’s affair with several rivals wanting to go forward in a big-field handicap. James Doyle gets on board for the first time and I’m convinced that his mark of 85 is workable.

I will head over to Newbury for the final two selections providing racing gets the go-ahead after another wet and wild week in the south. The ground was described as heavy, soft in places, on Thursday evening and a precautionary inspection was set for 8am on Friday, so hopefully you’re reading this part of the article otherwise the meeting has been called off!

The first of two picks is Supermodel, who will head to post for the Listed Radley Stakes (2.00) for trainer William Haggas. Haggas chose to declare her instead of a very nice prospect called Nardra, who was also among the entries for this race.

Supermodel made her debut last month on very testing ground at Haydock and I loved how she travelled through that race, barged her way out when the leaders were faltering, and finished full of running with her ears pricked at the line. It wasn’t the best novice ever run, but she certainly ticked the ‘visuals’ box.

Heavy ground will be no issue for her on that evidence and Haggas wouldn’t be the most willing of trainers to put a young filly into a black-type race without believing that she could be competitive, so I’m happy to part with some money in the hope that she remains unbeaten. 

My final selection is a little bit left-field as I don’t normally bet in amateur riders’ races. That being said, I’ve been waiting to see Mrs Meader in the mud and I was pleasantly surprised to see her in the field for the closing 0-70 1m4f handicap (4.50), a race that she was back in 2022.

This mare is eight now and certainly isn’t improving, but she showed that the fire still burned brightly when she romped home at Bath two runs back and I thought she performed admirably given her poor position last time out at Yarmouth. The key to Mrs Meader is testing ground and the return to Newbury is another major positive given two of her four career victories have come there.

Mrs Meader is now 7lb lower than when winning this event two years ago and Ross Birkett gets on particularly well with her, so I’m happy to see if she can do the business once again for trainer Julia Feilden.

Saturday’s Horse Racing Tips

Supermodel (2.00 Newbury) @ 15/8
Promethean (3.15 Doncaster) @ 10/1
Mrs Meader (4.50 Newbury) @ SP