Ascot and Haydock take centre stage in the UK on Saturday, with plenty of well known horses turning up to do their stuff. The main races on Saturday would be the Coral Hurdle at Ascot and the Betfair Chase at Haydock. Both races will be popular with punters, and both are live on Channel 4 for armchair racing fans. The 2.45 at Ascot (Coral Hurdle) sees plenty of favourite horses line up, and none more so than Celestial Halo, Kachit and Lough Derg. All of these will be popular with punters, but they’ll all have to go some to beat Oscar Whiskey. He’s won 3 out of his last 4 races and looks sure to run his race and be involved in the finish. The trip and ground are both perfect for him and Nicky Henderson has been on record saying he expects a big effort from the horse. Ireland’s Barry Geraghty gets the leg up, and there’s no better jockey riding at the moment that Barry. He’s a short priced favourite, but is well deserved of his tag. The 3.05 race at Haydock (Betfair Chase) is worth £112,540 to the winner, so all are sure to be fit and ready to go. Most of the top jumping trainers have an interest, and Paul Nicholls shows off his old favourite Kauto Star. This horse is getting on a bit now, but still retains plenty of ability and should give his fans plenty to cheer about. It’ll be a great performance if he wins. Long Run is the obvious choice after last season’s exploits, so he’ll certainly take all the beating and should win to be honest. Weird Al and Time For Rupert should give him most to think about. Ascot is a right handed, galloping, testing track, with stiff fences, and Haydock is a left handed, galloping chase track with stiff fences and a sharp hurdles track. The other meetings that make up Saturday in the UK are Huntingdon (jumps), Lingfield (flat), Punchestown (Irish jumps) and Wolverhampton (flat).

Sunday has a much quieter feel about it, with Towcester and Exeter being the main meetings, and Punchestown and Cork making up the day with racing from Ireland. The ground looks sure to be soft at Exeter, so punters will be going through their race cards looking for soft ground performers. A few soft ground lovers lining up at Exeter are Minella Stars (1.30 race), Baseball Ted (2.30 race) and Rimini (3.30 race), and all of these would be fair prices and worthy of a little betting interest. Towcester is a track that isn’t too kind to favourites, and it has the worst record for winning favourites in the country, so beware favourite backers. The 1.45 race will be of interest to many, with 13 runners lining up to race over 3 miles. Paul Nicholls has entered Curtain Razer, and he should run a big race and finish in the frame, at least.