ITV Racing Tips Today: 3 Best Bets from Ascot, Haydock & Newmarket – Saturday's Shergar Cup Selection

ITV Racing Tips – Saturday’s Best Bets at Ascot, Haydock & Newmarket

The ITV Racing cameras head to Ascot, Haydock and Newmarket for a cracking day of summer racing on Saturday, with big-field handicaps, Group contests and some well-fancied runners set to line up. Billy Grimshaw has analysed the key races and picked out three standout betting tips from the televised action to help guide your punting ahead of tomorrow’s ITV coverage.

13:35 Ascot - Shergar Cup Dash

The Shergar Cup is not many hardcore racing fans' favourite day in the calendar, and I won't pretend I am massively enthused by the team vs team idea, but they do get good crowds every season and so I have no real issue with it as a fixture. I actually have my strongest fancy on the card coming in the first race, the five furlong dash, as I love getting with a sprinter with good course form and that certainly applies to VINTAGE CLARETS.

Stall nine is perfect and with Vintage Clarets adept over five or six, this stiff five on rattling quick ground looks right up his street. He did flop here on his last run but there were excuses that day and off this mark, Richard Fahey's charge should have a massive chance. He ran well two starts ago at Newcastle on the artificial surface and we know that translates well to Ascot with their part synthetic surface and barring that flop here last time, I can see no real negatives.

He likes to race prominently but is versatile so if the pacesetters go like the clappers he'll enjoy chasing that from a smidgen further back than usual and in Hugh Bowman he has a more than capable rider from Down Under on board. I do fear Venture Capital on the same team, rest of world, but think the chief threat looks to be Toca Madera the favourite, but Vintage Clarets makes most appeal and hopefully kicks things off in style for us.

15:00 Haydock - Rose Of Lancaster Stakes

I am a huge fan of Haatem as a horse and think his Wolferton win at Royal Ascot was a just reward for how hardy and consistent Richard Hannon's colt is, so it was tough for me to side with anything against him in here. Nevertheless, I do think MILITARY ORDER looks set to finally come good anytime now and this could be a real breakout performance for Charlie Appleby with Tom Marquand booked to ride. On paper he should be a bigger price than Haatem as he could only manage sixth at the Royal Meeting in the aforementioned Wolferton, but that does not even tell half the story.

It was another rotten Royal meeting for Buick, Appleby and even Godolphin to an extent but there were few worse hard luck stories than Military Order, who was travelling beautifully into the race before being blocked on multiple occasions when push came to shove a furlong or so out. Perhaps he'd not have got past the tough Haatem at the front with a clear run but it's tough to imagine the hampering he got wasn't worth the 2 and a half length margin he was beaten by and with a clearer run, and perhaps a more positive ride here, I think he's the one they all have to beat.

He has a good record over this distance and fresh so the break will have done him good and while I may be barking up the wrong tree thinking he's as classy as I do, I am of the opinion however tough Haatem or any other horse in this line-up is this lad will have too much for them. On class grounds his chief rival is Detain, who flopped at Royal Ascot for which his trainer blamed the fast surface. It's set to be good but not rattling at Haydock which would bring him back into the big picture and like Military Order he's had a break, so perhaps he rates the main danger.

15:20 Ascot - Shergar Cup Sprint

This looks another fiendishly tricky punting puzzle to solve and I am by no means recommending a max bet, but considering he beat plenty of these beaten UP THE PACE was my idea of the clear favourite, so at 11/2 he rates a bet. That day he saw off Tuco Salamanca by half a length and since then has done very little wrong, winning again at Doncaster with more weight on his back before a fine second on the Newmarket July course last time out.

Despite his naming, this is a hold up horse and that'll come in handy here with Ascot's stiff finish to the sprints, and providing Suraj Narredu manages to get as good a tune out of him as Kieran Shoemark has the last thrice, I can't really see him finishing out of the frame. There will be plenty who scoff at an each-way recommendation at these odds but considering I have noted the competitive nature of this race yet retain confidence in our lad at least hitting the frame, which would result in money back and no loss, it is the sensible play.

There are dangers aplenty and Hucklesbrook, who was beaten by Up The Pace here three starts ago but won his next two before a blip at Newmarket, rates the chief threat in my opinion providing he is not already over the top for the season. It's worth forgiving any horse one bad run and I do think this could be a 1-2 for Asia with these two horses, although others are of course in contention including Flash Harry off the front for Europe and Milford for the home team of GB & Ireland.