ITV Racing Tips: Newbury and Newmarket Selections For Saturday

York's Dante Festival is now over and we switch attention south to Newbury and Newmarket on ITV Racing for the weekend on Saturday. Billy Grimshaw has a couple of bets on the card worth consideration...

13:40 Newmarket

Roger Varian is a trainer known for the softly softly approach with his horses and as such in three year old only races like this one at Newmarket it can pay to take a close look at his entrants and note how lightly raced they are in comparison to their rivals. For a race just for three year olds there are plenty in here who had plenty of experience at two but that doesn't apply to his King Power racing owned runner FONDO BLANCO and to my eye he is the one with the most upside, so rates the bet.

I was expecting nearer 2/1 about this Ten Sovereigns colt so the 11/4 being dangled in plenty of places is worth snaffling up as soon as you can should you be following me in. He really should've won last time out at Doncaster and if he had, he'd be much shorter in here and be running off a tougher mark than 85 which does jump off the page somewhat. He won his final start as a two year old but this seasonal reappearance at Donny over 6f was a career best and with all his best work done late, I am loving this step up in trip on rattling quick ground.

Art Market has been steadily improving this season for William Haggas and rates the chief threat, while I would also not want to rule out potential pace angle Saxonia in a hurry but this was fairly straightforward for me as I believe Fondo Blanco is the best horse in the race and he's weighted to win, so he is Saturday's NAP.

14:00 Newbury

The London Gold Cup often throws up an above average winner, and indeed a few decent runners either in the places or down the field come the end of the season, and it'd be no surprise to me were we to see a few of the market principles here go on to bigger and better things in the 2025 turf campaign following this handicap for three year olds. Genealogy heads the market for the red hot Aidan O'Brien and Ryan Moore combination and although he of course has a chance, I think he's going to have to be very smart indeed to win this off 96.

Wave Rider makes a lot of appeal and was probably the last horse off my shortlist for the Charlton team who have targeted this race with plenty of success in recent years, as he has had just three starts, all over 7f and all with him looking to be crying out for a step up in trip. I'd expected a more gradual climb but he skips the mile distance and comes straight out to 1m2f and that looks sure to suit, but after her recent record breaking 1000th win in the UK I am going to side with Hollie Doyle to land another winner in these colours on board NEBRAS.

This horse is a half brother to Nashwa, a horse Doyle built up a tremendous partnership with en-route to many group successes in her career, and although this Gosden three year old may never scale the heights of his half sister I do think there's plenty of improvement in him considering the progress he made from first to second start at three. Last time out over this distance at Southwell he was a good second, three lengths off the smart Alpine Trail, doing all his best work late on as the winner got first run on him. That was a messy race with just four runners but it was notable how quickly Nebras was finishing after perhaps being caught out a smidgen by the nature of the race and now in a big field with pace aplenty - perhaps even from the favourite - to aim at I think he can land a first win of the season at a nice price.