Saturday’s Racing Tips – Look on the brightside with Mr Lightside at York

This tip has expired. Please check our free horse racing tips section of the website to find the most up to date.

It was a good day on the thread yesterday with one winning selection at advised odds of 9/2 and some nice each-way profit gained with my 20/1 selection grabbing a place.

Rizzel was rewarded by going with his gut with Vauban. The Willie Mullins trained runner travelled strongly like Rizzel said he would and glided to the front. The runner-up was staying on like a steam train inside the final furlong but got going too late. Andesite looks in need of experience. He looks like he has the potential to be a very nice horse, but he was keen, and it's not a surprise as it was his first run since the Dante meeting. He had no cover and was then squeezed out by the eventual winner, but he then stayed on again when he had no chance of winning or placing, so I think with time he will be a good horse.

My first selection Derry Lad was far too keen in his race and although he plugged on in the end, he never looked like he was going threaten in the business end. My other selection Starlust ran a blinder at advised odds of 20/1, he looked like he was going backwards in the final furlong however he found a second wind to knuckle down in the final furlong and managed to grab us a place to gain some nice each-way profit.

Cairnzy's Tips

Burdett Road 12/1 EW – York 3.35

As expected this years Ebor handicap is massively competitive and finding the winner in this race race can be tough. Bet 365 are offering 6 places which has pushed me more towards going down the eachway route again.

I was drawn to quite a few horses, one of which was Epic Poet, who stayed on powerfully last time out at this track to finish fifth. He came into a lot of traffic problems when attempting to lay down his challenge and if given a clear passage he probably would have gone close. He's drawn in 16 for this contest which was enough to put me of him. David O'Meara is a menace when it comes to handicap races and although I've opted to avoid him this time round, he should still go well if producing a similar performance to that of his last run. The other obvious one was Queenstown for Aiden O'Brien, who brings solid form to the table with his runner up efforts behind Kyprios who on recent performances in the best stayer in the business. Queenstown carries top weight and is drawn in 22 which will be a tough ask for James Doyle and for those reasons I also opted to avoid. After a lot of consideration regarding the remainder of the field, my dart final landing on the James Owen trained Burdett Road.

York has tended to favour those drawn low with the first six winners from yesterday drawn in 9-4-8-3-2-6 and from looking at those drawn low in this particular race, Burdett Road was the one who ticked most of the boxes for me as being a solid eachway play. Originally trained by Michael Bell, Burdett Road switched hands to James Owen in October of last year and has been in great form since changing stables. He won on his first outing for James Owen when landing a Class 4 Hurdle contest at Huntingdon under jockey Harry Cobden. Burdett Road followed up next time out when winning at Cheltenham and ran well in defeat at the same course next time out when finishing a well beaten second by the well regarding Sir Gino. My selection was reverted to the flat after a long layoff of 181 days and finished just under four lengths back in fifth. I think connections would have been happy enough with that effort given the long layoff and it was also Burdett Road's return to flat racing having raced over the jumps prior to that. That run should have blown away any cobwebs, and it appears that this valuable handicap has been the aim for this horse. Settling Burdett Road will be key, as he tends to run quite freely in his races, but if Silvestre De Sousa can pop him out prominently along the rail and get him into a rhythm, he should give punters a run for their money at an attractive price.

Mr Lightside 9/4 – York 4.45

My final selection of the York Ebor festival comes in the shape of the Mick Appleby trained Lightside who will be ridden by jockey Rossa Ryan. I was tempted to avoid Mr Lightside, as the form of Mick Applebys yard has dropped of a little and his two highly regarded sprinters Big Mojo and Big Evs both flattered to deceive in their recent outings this week, more so Big Evs than Big Mojo. With that said, the more I digged into the form of Lightside the more I was drawn to roll the dice with him in this Listed contest over 5f.

My selection remains lightly raced at the age of 2, having only raced the four times in his career but he's progressed at a rate of knots since disappointing on debut back in June of this year. His debut run came at Leicester over 6f and he finished a remote 15L off the eventual winner Pentle Bay, for what it's worth, Pentle Bay finished second behind Bedtime Story next time out, so be it nine and a half lengths behind the O'Brien runner on the day.

My selection took a massive step forward from his debut run when he won a Novice contest at Redcar over 5f. The drop back to 5f seemingly suited Mr Lightside as he followed up once more when winning at Nottingham. He finished over 2L ahead of the now 85-rated Hallasan who boosted the form with a convincing three-and-a-quarter length victory next time out. The third-placed horse Diligently boosted the form further on Thursday when getting the better of my selection on the day Arizona Blaze.

My Lightside then took his form to another level when finishing third in a Group 3 contest at Glorious Goodwood. The form of that Group 3 contest is head and shoulders above anything else on offer. My selection finished 1L behind Big Mojo who ran well enough yesterday in the Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes. Aesterius who finished one place ahead of my selection is now rated in the low 100s while Celandine who finished behind Mr Lightside that day has since boosted the form when winning the Group 2 Lowther Stakes, getting the better of recent Queen Mary Stakes winner Leovanni and Aiden O'Briens Heavens Gate.

Rizzel's Tips

Enfjaar 4/1 – York 1.50

We kick off the final day of the York Ebor festival with a Group 3 where we get some decent young horses taking on the older horses. We've seen on a few occasions this year, that the younger generation doesn't appear to be a ‘golden' generation, other than the main lad, City Of Troy, and for that reason, I am happy to take on those at the bottom of the weights.

We see Ryan Moore and other jockeys attached to big stables/owners get it wrong, but it can be a tough task for Ryan who rides for the best operation in the whole of horse racing and they produce some crazy horses, so you can let it slide when it comes to him. Jim Crowley on the other hand, he has opted for Alyanaabi in this race over Enfjaar, which does come as a surprise to me. He is evidently a good horse, as shown by his 2-year-old campaign when he won a Group 3 and finished as runner-up to City Of Troy in the Group 1 Dewhurst at the back end of the season. This year, he has finished fifth in the Guineas, and then fifth in the St James's Palace at Royal Ascot, but last time out when taking on the older horses when going off 6/5F he was easily put in his place, and that saw Jim Crowley ride him over Al Aasy who was second in that race. I think he has got it wrong for today's race, as Enfjaar has a cracking chance based on what we've seen from him on his last couple of runs.

Since the Gelding operation, Enfjaar's form has gone through the roof. He should be 3/3 this year but he didn't get the rub of the green last time out at Glorious Goodwood, but prior to that he won in great style on his reappearance and then won the John Smith's Cup in fairly easy fashion. Last time out he was positioned a fair bit off the pace in a race which saw the pace hold up nicely, but he recorded the highest finishing speed percentage of any horse of the meeting at 115.66%, which suggests he had plenty left to give and simply lost purely on his race position, which is so often the case at Goodwood which is a punter's nightmare. This is undoubtedly his hardest assignment to date, but I don't see another horse in the race other than maybe the filly at the bottom of the weights, who can cause Roger Varian's 4-year-old gelding a problem. Obviously, he lacks Class 1 form coming into this, but the John Smith's Cup has been won by some decent horses in the past, with Anmaat being a recent prover of that, who won a Group 1 last year for the same owners.

Andrew Balding's horse at the bottom of the weights is my idea of the main threat as she was second to Opera Singer last time out at Goodwood. I think she will enjoy the fast ground, but I'm not totally sold on the form of the Group 1 race she ran in last time out. If you are a supporter of the three-year-olds in this race take a look at the stats…

2023 – 3rd/6 & 6th/6
2022 – winner, 4th/7, 5th/7 & 7th/7
2021 – 6th/7
2019 – 2nd/6 & 3rd/6
2018 – 3rd/8, 5th/8, 7th/8 & 8th/8
2017 – 2nd/7 & 7th/7
2016 – 8th/10
2015 – 9th/9
2014 – 3rd/7
2013 – 4th/7 & 5th/7

Other than the 2022 winner, the last 3-year-old winner was back in 2009.

Summerghand 9/1 EW – York 4.10

I'm not going to write about how overly optimistic I am about the Summerghand in this race as it's a 19-runner sprint handicap at York which has been a nightmare for punters this year and that's probably the case for this type of race on any track due to the amount of runners, but I think if everything drops right for him, he has to be hitting the frame.

It wouldn't surprise me to see him strong in the market throughout the day as he is going for the hat-trick of wins for this race, which a lot of punters will latch onto, but I'm hoping his age will put people off and we get a decent price on him. At the age of 10, he's going to have to prove he still has it at this level, and based on a couple of runs this year, I think he still can operate at this level, especially off his current handicap mark. He has had a fairly brutal campaign over the last 15 months, which has seen him hit the race track every month since February 2023, he won this race in 2022 off a mark of 97 and won it last year off a mark of 102 when dead-heating with Albasheer, who has franked that form on a number of occasions since. On both of those occasions, he has raced in the Great St Wilfrid Handicap at Ripon, running well on both times before coming and winning today's race. Last year he was running okay throughout the season, but then upped his game at Ripon and finished in second by a head. This year, his form has been okay with a few good runs here and there, but he ran a belter at Ripon and it was a return to form as he had a lot of work to do from his rear position. It's almost as if David O'Meara has said at the start of the year, we'll work backwards from today's 6f handicap and we'll prep him for the hat-trick, with him simmering and is now ready to boil at the right time.

He clearly likes the track, which is a big positive for York, and he loves fast ground and a very good pace to aim at. He has been blessed by the stalls gods as he has been put in stall 6 which is definitely on the right side based on how results have panned out this week, and he should be able to get a nice toe into the race from some pacesetters like Apollo One and Strike Red. Like every big field handicap when you're on a horse who is held up, we're going to need luck in running, but he's managed it two years on the trot, so fingers crossed it's another good passage this year.

Danny Tudhope isn't on board, but that's all down to Danny not being able to do the weight of 8st 8lbs. But not to worry, David O'Meara has booked one of the best in business, Oisin Murphy. He could've easily gone for another stable jockey like Jason Watson, but he's got Oisin in the saddle and that screams out to me like they really fancy their chances for this. Oisin isn't used too much for this stable but has racked up 7 wins from 25 rides for David in the last five years, which is a 28% SR, with a further 10 being placed in the top three.

Horse Racing Tips

🔗 Share Your Horse Racing Tips on Social Media