Mick Fitzgerald’s Saturday ITV Racing tips

13:40 Ascot – Kargese
13:55 Haydock – Royal Infantry
14:15 Ascot – Scarface
14:30 Haydock – Royale Pagaille
14:50 Ascot – Altobelli
15:05 Haydock – Good Look Charm (each-way)
15:32 Ascot – Jonbon

*All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change.

13:40 Ascot – Kargese

A Grade 2 mares’ hurdle where Kargese is very hard to oppose. She tops the ratings at 141, a couple of pounds above Take No Chances on 139. Her back form features runner up efforts in the Triumph Hurdle, to Sir Gino at Aintree, before then winning at the Punchestown Festival. She’s hard to oppose for the Willie Mullins yard.

13:55 Haydock – Royal Infantry

It might be a challenging day for Paddy as there are a lot of well fancied favourites on the card. Royal Infantry represents the Skelton team and with Harry chasing hard for the £500k first prize in the David Power Jockeys’ Challenge he’ll be keen to pick up another 10 points for winning another ITV race. It’s very hard to look past him as he’s already a course and distance winner on testing ground.

14:15 Ascot – Scarface

Joe Tizzard’s runner Scarface ran a very good race last time when second to Kotmask at this track. Bar a mistake at the last, he would have finished even closer. He gets 3lbs of that rival now and stepping up in trip to 2m 5f will help. He looks handicapped to win carrying just 10st 2lb.

 

14:30 Haydock – Royale Pagaille

Royale Pagaille has won six chases and five of them have come at this track on this type of ground. He’s a real force at Haydock and it will take a big performance from one of today’s rivals to beat him. Trelawne has decent form but won’t be able to dictate how this contest is run. The former Welsh Grand National winner Iwilldoit will relish the conditions, but is a 12-year-old now and is not going to improve again. We know what Royale Pagaille can do and if he runs to his rating – he should win.

14:50 Ascot – Altobelli

I would have loved the ground to be softer for Bo Zenith as he’d be a strong contender. I’m not convinced it will be though and he’s definitely more effective with plenty of juice in the ground. Altobelli’s jumping can be an issue but his best runs have come at this venue in decent company. I’ll give him the nod.

15:05 Haydock – Good Look Charm (each-way)

The 3m handicap hurdle is very competitive so I’ll take a punt each-way on Good Luck Charm. He loves soft ground with jockey Chad Bament taking off 10lbs it means Good Luck Charm has a racing weight of 10st 2lbs. That’s a big plus.

15:32 Ascot – Jonbon

I’m a big Jonbon fan and his record over fences speaks for itself. He’s won 11 of his 13 starts over the larger obstacles and is in the Millionaire’s Club – having won a million pounds in prize money for connections. Everything looks in his favour and he should have too many guns for the Irish challenger Energumene.

Mick Fitzgerald’s Saturday ITV Racing tips

13:40 Ascot – Kargese
13:55 Haydock – Royal Infantry
14:15 Ascot – Scarface
14:30 Haydock – Royale Pagaille
14:50 Ascot – Altobelli
15:05 Haydock – Good Look Charm (each-way)
15:32 Ascot – Jonbon

*All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at the time of publishing but subject to change.

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