ITV Racing Tips: Three To Back at Haydock and Beverley

With Royal Ascot on the horizon, a low key weekend is here but still there are plenty of intriguing races to get stuck into. Haydock and Beverley see the ITV Racing cameras in town and Billy Grimshaw has three he will be siding with...
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14:25 Haydock - Betfred 'Play Fred's £5 Million' Handicap
This is a competitive race up at Haydock and we'll kick things off in supporting IRON LION with Jamie Spencer in the saddle. The Roaring Lion gelding is going to take his chance for David O'Meara and off what looks a decent mark, I'm willing to put a line through his latest appearance at Newmarket when on paper finishing disappointingly.
Watching the race back, however, it is clear he was luckless and after being squeezed as the race heated up he was then again hampered and lost all chance. If we ignore that run, he would surely be vying for favouritism on the back of a cruising Doncaster success. The main danger in my eye was not one of the market leaders but Struth for Charlie Johnston, who has been poor this season thus far but as with plenty from this stable improves for action.
He could get a bit of a freebie on the front end and if he's improving as the year rumbles on, he could take plenty of pegging back. Nevertheless, I do think Iron Lion will enjoy Spencer's riding and can outrun odds of 11/2 or bigger with our friends at BetMGM.
15:00 Haydock - Betfred Nifty 50 Lester Piggott Fillies' Stakes
Things don't get much easier in the next at Haydock as a host of high class fillies full of potential clash for this Group 3 prize. It is 5/1 the field as I type this piece out and seven of them are sub 10/1, indicating the competitive nature of this Haydock race, but I'll be siding with the market leader at the time of writing in SEA THEME.
A similar argument to the case of Iron Lion is also true for Sea Theme here, as she bombed out last time out when clearly not on a going day. I'm willing to ignore that as she was evidently in a right state before the race even started and as such was not given a hard time by Tom Marquand, but before that she had shown herself to be very classy indeed at York over this trip. William Haggas has won this race the last two years and for obvious reasons is keen as a bean to win it given the connection to the great man it is named after.
A ferocious pace looks almost certain which will suit our pick Sea Theme and if Miss Cantik sets off at a million miles an hour as she often does, that should set things up perfectly for those who can sit prominent and go past her with a late finishing kick Queen Of The Pride rates the main danger and is progressive, but I'll back Sea Theme to win the battle.
15:15 Beverley - bet365 Handicap
This could be a messy race to round things off at Beverley with a packed field and the known draw bias meaning there could be plenty of jostling early doors. There is no bona fide front runner in here either but I'm going to take a chance that BILLYB is ridden prominently as he was on yard debut last time out at York a fortnight ago but this race will hopefully favour those on the pace rather than the stalkers.
There was plenty to like about what Billyb produced on his first run back after a long break and debut for new connections - the Craig Lidster team - 14 days ago when he travelled well to eventually finish fifth on the Knavesmire. As I previously mentioned, he was the best of those who tried to force the issue at York and with race fitness now on his side and back at a track he has won at twice before, I will be disappointed if he can't at least hit the frame.
He does have the draw bias to contend with but the only high drawn pace I could see was Yoshimi so providing they go steadily hopefully his rider can negate the bias and get in the mix.