Saturday horse racing tips: 12/1 shot Cliffs Of Capri backed to do the business at Ascot

Follow this advice for the weekend's biggest races and you could be a winner

by · Irish Mirror

It’s fair to say that even with the presence of the ‘Queen of Newmarket’ Enable, a four-runner field in the mid-summer showpiece, Saturday’s King George (3.35pm) at Ascot, is disappointing to say the least.

This column has attempted to take on Enable (8/15) in the past, mainly due to prohibitive odds, but this time no such efforts will be made as she’s rated 6lb higher than her nearest rival Japan who she finished one place ahead of last time when second in the Eclipse at Sandown.

Even though Japan was only a head adrift of her, it’s extremely hard to see him reversing the form as he had the benefit of a previous outing in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot, while Enable was having her first start for 273 days.

Despite Enable being beaten at the Esher sweat bowl, canny Suffolk sorcerer John Gosden and pilot Frankie Dettori seemed delighted with her as Gosden had expressed beforehand it had been harder to get her race fit this year and that contest has reportedly brought her on.

Japan was also two-and-a-quarter lengths behind Enable in last year’s Arc so according to the form, Enable is set to enter the annals of racing history by becoming the first horse to scoop the King George three times.

No dearth of runners in the International Stakes (2.25pm) and Cliffs Of Capri (12/1) can do the business for owners Melbourne 10 Racing.

The selection is a two-time course and distance winner who ran a fine race last time when fourth behind Motakhayyel in the Buckingham Palace Handicap at Royal Ascot, finishing just two and three-quarter lengths behind the winner.

There were no real excuses that day, although the ground might have been a bit slower than he prefers as all of his wins have been on the all-weather or a good or faster surface, but the winner has franked the form in no uncertain terms.

Despite a hike of 7lb in the weights, Motakhayyel was always doing enough to land the ultra-competitive Bunbury Cup at Newmarket earlier this month and pattern races probably beckon for him now.

Cliffs Of Capri did supremely well to get so close to such a progressive customer and can get back in the hallowed winner’s enclosure on his favourite track.

Middleham magician Mark Johnston has always thought the world of Elarqam (9/4) although he continues to be something of a nearly horse, but he can bounce back to winning ways in the Sky Bet York Stakes (2.40pm), a race he triumphed in by over three lengths last season.

The fancy could only muster a sixth last time in the Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot, but that effort can probably be ignored as connections were trying a new and longer distance and he also lost his right-fore shoe during the event.

He’s proven over this extended 10 furlongs and his wafer-thin defeat to Lord North before that reads well with the latter’s subsequent Prince of Wales’s Stakes win.