Saturday’s horse racing preview

Selection in every race at Newbury

As well as the Scottish Grand National meeting at Ayr, Saturday’s UK and Irish schedule also shows racing at Newbury, Thirsk, Bangor, Nottingham, Wolverhampton and Limerick, and you can bet on every race with us.

Click now to back the winners. We have given our views on the Scottish National, and you’ll find a preview for that race in the horse racing section of this site, but here we focus on what promises to be an interesting afternoon at Newbury. There’s plenty to get through, so we waste no time in jumping in with our NAP and next best of the eight-race card. In a hurry? You’ll find a pick in every contest at the foot of this page.

Plenty of improving left in Dabyah

The focus of the day for us lines up in the second race on the card, the Fred Darling Stakes, a seven-furlong fillies group three affair. Coral’s odds compiler have Dabyah picked out as 5/4 favourite in the early betting, and we must agree with them on that.

Frankie Dettori rides for John Gosden, a partnership that’s sure to attract plenty of attention from casual backers, but the three-year-old is at the head of the betting on merit. Winning two of her three career starts, at Newmarket and Newbury, she was last seen ending third over at Chantilly in the group one Prix Marcel Boussac. Not a win, but a very useful piece of form indeed.

Punters will find enough to encourage

There’s just as much to get excited about on British soil, tanking home to score over course and distance by nine lengths in the summer, and we really saw what she was capable of that day. Frankie opened her up from the start, making all and drawing well clear, before being eased across the line with plenty to spare.

That effort, and the challenge that followed, suggests she’s the one to stick with here. There’s still plenty of improving left in her, but we will need to see an example of that here to get her back in the winner’s enclosure. I make Dabyah capable.

Dhalam to overcome bad luck

Nearer the end of the day and our next best goes to post at 4.45pm in a tight-looking maiden stakes. Again, we seem to be thinking along the same lines as traders, who have Dhalam as 5/6 jolly. A winner all day long in my book, but she’s next best on the notion backers would probably be looking to stick her in with a few others in multiples.

Another for Dettori and Gosden, who we’re hoping have a great day, there’s not an awful lot to go on with Dhalam, but he is incredibly well-bred, and connections sunk a few quid into acquiring him. Second on debut, beaten a head by race favourite Archer’s Arrow, excuses can be made for the result. He endured a tough run that day, finding room difficult to come by, and was impeded near the finish too.

All in all, a tough day at the office. Despite all that, he did show a fantastic turn of foot to go so close and I make him a winner of the same race if they were to do it again. It was just a bit of bad luck. That should even itself out here.

Newbury Selections

1.55 – Crimean Tartar

2.30 – Dabyah

3.05 – Zainhom

3.40 – Chelsea Lad

4.15 – Najashee

4.45 – Dhalam

5.20 – Master Singer

5.55 – Signe

Click now for our Scottish Grand National preview