ITV Racing tips: Three from Haydock as we bid to follow up last Saturday’s 48/1 double

This Saturday’s ITV Racing broadcast features nine races from Ascot, Haydock and Kempton, including five from the Merseyside track’s Group 1 Sprint Cup fixture and news.betzone return to the fray after two wins and a place from last weekend’s terrestrial selections.

A Charlie Johnston rising star can land the Grade 3 opener, while a Scottish raiding party is backed in the Old Borough Cup and a horse that finished 14th last time is expected to bounce back in the feature.

ITV Racing: Superior Mile can go the way of C&D winning filly on the up

Dylan Cunha is back with Prague in a bid to go one better in the Superior Mile (1.15) after finishing second to Holloway Boy last year, while Celebration Mile fourth and fifth Make Me King and Ice Max are also short in the market for the Grade 3 opener.

However, there’s too much to like about SUITE FRANCAISE to look elsewhere as she bids to follow up a course and distance win in a listed fillies event in early August.

That was her second Haydock success in as many tries and the form has been well advertised by Shuwari, who was three lengths back in third, winning a listed fillies’ mile at Longchamp in the interim.

Rated 104, it looks a shrewd bit of placement from trainer Charlie Johnston as his filly benefits from both three-year-old and fillies allowances – effectively making her the best horse in the race at the weights.

Johnston (28%) and jockey Joe Fanning (33%) both have great records at the track this term and they can improve upon them with a filly certain to remain on the upgrade in just her fifth career start.

ITV Racing: Side with Scottish yard with plenty of Old Borough Cup previous

The Old Borough Cup (3.00) is always an absorbing prelude to this Haydock card’s Group 1 feature and the 2025 edition is a typically-competitive renewal.

Some three of the last five winners finished in the first nine home in the Ebor on their previous outing and on that evidence David O’Meara’s Stressfree warrants serious consideration.
Preference though is for PADDY THE SQUIRE, a hat-trick seeker stepping up to 1m6f for the first time in his career after two wins at a mile and a half.

While the form of those successes hasn’t worked out incredibly yet, the fact the five-year-old hails from Iain Jardine’s Dumfries operation heightens the appeal of his already compelling profile. Jardine has won the Old Borough Cup twice from just four runners since 2015.

ITV Racing: Longest-priced of Wathnan trio our pick for Grade 1 Sprint Cup

Owner superpower Wathnan Racing look to have a fantastic chance of landing the Group 1 Sprint Cup with the firm triply-represented by likely favourite Lazzat and last year’s second and fifth Kind Of Blue and Flora Of Bermuda.

The former is a deserving favourite having bagged the top-flight Diamond Jubilee stakes at Royal Ascot on his last UK run, but is perhaps short enough in an open division, while a lot has to be taken on trust with the second-named following three moderate efforts so far this term.

Flora Of Bermuda, on the other hand, is available at more attractive odds and has a fantastic chance on the evidence of her run in the race last year. Travelling as sweetly as anything when denied a clear run at a vital point in the contest, she came home very strongly for fifth.

Her poor run in the July Cup last time out can be overlooked as she completely missed the start and wasn’t hard pressed after that, while her Group 1 class is already evident on the basis of her half length second to Kind Of Blue in the British Champions Sprint as a three-year-old last October.