Liam Firkin Ante-Post Selection for Saturday at York

AALTO - 1 P EW (4 Places)

Best price 16/1.

AALTO (16/1) presents us with a slight headache as he’s doubly entered for the weekend but he’s clearly a horse who is well handicapped and one I’ve been monitoring since his second place finish behind More Thunder at Newmarket last season.

We were punched in the gut by a switch of race last weekend with Alpha Crucis and I’m praying that isn’t the case again this week as he holds an entry at Newmarket for this week but does have a jockey booking for York and that is where I will play him.

Ryan Moore is booked to ride which is eye catching in of itself but he’s also down to a very attractive mark of 87 which makes him of great appeal given the performance in the Bunbury Cup in 2025 when running off a rating of 92. He has had a prep run prior to this and Ian Williams has been on record to suggest that many of his runners would come forward for the benefit of their first outing this season.

He drops in class if lining up here and this would give backers more confidence that this is the plan for the weekend given that he was entered to run in this race last season before being declared a non-runner. He is well handicapped and has run with credit on his last two appearances at York and hopefully another big performance is on the cards for Saturday.