This Saturday’s ITV Racing menu serves up equine action from both codes with Newbury’s Weatherby’s Super Sprint card joined by the closest thing to an oasis for thirsty jumps fans at this time of year – Market Rasen’s Summer Plate meeting.
Karl Burke can continue his excellent campaign on the level with a second successive victory for a three-old sprinter, while champion jumps jockey Harry Cobden is fancied to take both the big races of the day over obstacles.
ITV Racing Tips – Saturday July 20
2.40 Market Rasen – Enthused to win (each-way) @ 16/1
3.00 Newbury – Elite Status to win @ 7/2
3.15 Market Rasen – Sure Touch to win @ 17/2
Bet on the latest horse racing odds at Betzone
Much to be Enthused about when it comes to this James Owen hurdler
The Summer Hurdle at Market Rasen looks a typically competitive edition this year with Betzone going 6/1 the field at the time of writing, so it would be remiss not to chance one at a decent price.
Winners have scored at 22/1, 40/1 and 25/1 inside the last five runnings and the eye is immediately drawn to James Owen’s ENTHUSED by the early booking of champion jockey Harry Cobden, who nailed his colours to the mast well ahead of Thursday’s declarations.
This jockey and trainer team are well worth following over hurdles having combined for 13 winners from 40 runners at a 33% strike rate. A further nine of those 40 finished second.
Likely to be as fit as a fiddle after six flat races in the last three months, four of this seven-year-old’s five career wins over hurdles have come inside his last six outings over timber.
While he was pulled up on his last run over the smaller obstacles, that came at the end of a lengthy 2023 campaign and he can resume his upward trajectory for this trainer-jockey axis.
Tip: 2.40 Market Rasen – Enthused to win (each-way) @ 16/1
Upwardly mobile sprinter to prove his Elite Status in the Hackwood
Regional looks likely to go off favourite to land Newbury’s Group 3 Hackwood Stakes, which is fair enough considering he won last season’s Group 1 Haydock Sprint Cup and finished second in the top-flight King Charles III Stakes at Royal Ascot last time out.
However, despite those exploits he’s rated a modest 114, suggesting there’s every chance one of the younger speedsters lining up against him could improve past him here. Three-year-olds ELITE STATUS, Lake Forest and James’s Delight are just 3lbs inferior in the eyes of the handicapper.
The former makes plenty of appeal, with the form of his victorious seasonal bow in the listed Carnarvon Stakes over this course and distance working out well.
Adaay In Devon (four-and-a-quarter lengths third in the Carnarvon), won the listed Scurry Stakes at Sandown next time, before finishing a close second in the Group 3 Summer Stakes at York.
Tip: 3.00 Newbury – Elite Status to win @ 7/2
Sure has everything in place to land a touch in the Summer Plate
That man Cobden is fully expected to be at it again in the second of the feature races at Market Rasen, where he combines with Olly Murphy aboard the Wilmcote handler’s SURE TOUCH.
The eight-year-old polished off last season with a hat-trick and appears to have plenty in his favour for his first run of the 2024/25 campaign. Murphy’s gelding has won four of his seven races on the expected good going, three of his four runs at the 2m trip and one of his two outings at the track.
His more recent run at Market Rasen saw him finish a distant third, but it was his first run back after a wind-op and the fact that he racked up wins in his next three races suggests he was getting reacquainted with having a full tank of puff to call upon on that occasion.
Sure Touch won his last outing at Ayr by five lengths in April meaning it’s likely he has plenty of mileage left in his current handicap mark of 137.
