Saturday Racing Tips from Steve Ryder

This looks a competitive handicap hurdle but I am going to take a chance on last year’s winner PARTY BUSINESS (best priced at 9/1) and last year’s third MILL GREEN (best priced at 12/1). Party Business won this race last year off a mark of 132 finishing ¾ length ahead of Ilikedwayurthinkin with Mill Green a further 12 lengths back in third. The handicapper raised him 9lbs for that victory but following three below par performances he has dropped back down to a mark of 137. Hopefully this return to Aintree will spark a revival and he looks worth taking a chance on win only. 

Mill Green outran odds of 22/1 to finish placed at the Cheltenham Festival for a second year in a row in the Pertemps Handicap Hurdle and he runs here off only a 1lb higher mark. He jumped the last in front but was ran down late on by the reopposing Good Time Jonny. He finished 3rd in this race off a mark of 140 last year so he should be competitive off a mark of 139 and he should run well with up to seven places on offer. 

The Supreme Novices’ Hurdle is already working out well with Inthepocket (4th) and Strong Leader (9th) finishing 1-2 in the Grade 1 Top Novices’ Hurdle yesterday and I feel DARK RAVEN (best priced at 7/2) should prove hard to beat in this race. The Willie Mullins trained six-year-old won both of his bumpers last season before winning on his hurdling debut at Leopardstown easily by 3 lengths. He finished 3rd behind Il Etait Temps in at the Dublin Racing Festival before finishing 6th in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. 

Dark Raven now steps up in trip to 2m4f for the first time and if he stays the trip then he should prove extremely hard to beat with Hermes Allen needing to bounce back from a poor effort at Cheltenham.

With the weights for the Grand National published in February, it means that some horses can be favourably weighted for the race. The likes of The Big Breakaway (-2lbs), Mister Coffey (-2lbs), Eva’s Oskar (-2lbs), Francky Du Berlais (-2lbs), Sam Brown (-3lbs), Cloudy Glen (-3lbs), Hill Sixteen (-3lbs), Fortescue (-3lbs) and Back On The Lash (-5lbs) have all been dropped by the handicapper since the weights so they run off a higher mark than currently on but the two who run well in at the weights are CORACH RAMBLER (best priced at 10/1) and OUR POWER (best priced at 28/1).

Corach Rambler won for the second year in a row at the Cheltenham Festival when he stayed on well in the Ultima Handicap Chase to win by a neck from Fastorslow. He had previously run well behind Le Milos in the Coral Trophy at Newbury staying on well over 3m2f shaping like this trip shouldn’t be a problem. The fact Derek Fox is back in time to ride is a huge positive and hopefully he can repeat his victory on One For Arthur from 2017 from 10lbs “well in” at the weights.

Our Power finished 5th behind Corach Rambler in the Ultima Handicap Chase last year and has won both of his starts this season. The Sam Thomas trained eight-year-old won by two lengths at Ascot on his reappearance before winning at Kempton last time over 3 miles. Sam Twiston-Davies won the Topham Chase yesterday over the Grand National fences and hopefully Our Power can run well from 4lbs “well in” at the weights today.