Horse Racing Tips on Saturday, June 25
There are seven meetings spread across Britain and Ireland on Saturday June 25th, with the action coming from Chester, Doncaster, Lingfield, Newcastle, Newmarket, Windsor and the Curragh. Our expert editor has produced their top tips across the cards, which make up our advised Saturday Lucky 15.
Strike Red (1:50 Newcastle)
Richard Fahey’s STRIKE RED is a perfect 2 from 2 over this course and distance and connections will be confident the four-year-old can extend that record to three this weekend after hinting at a return to form at Hamilton last time out. Fourth on that occasion, Strike Red was only three-quarters of a length behind the eventual winner Snazzy Jazzy that day and it’s worth noting that Richard Fahey’s charge had attracted plenty of market support beforehand despite finishing down the field on his last couple of starts.
The form of that Hamilton contest has been given a recent boost with the fifth and sixth scoring recently and off an unchanged mark of 91, Strike Red appears to have obvious claims now returning to a venue where he clearly saves some of his best performances for.
Strike Red looked right back to his best when last seen at Hamilton.
Onesmoothoperator (3:30 Newcastle)
Newcastle-born trainer Brian Ellison came agonisingly close to landing the Northumberland Plate in 2016 with Seamour and whilst the North Yorkshire handler has had little luck in recent renewals, he appears to have a serious contender in ONESMOOTHOPERATOR this year.
Brought along this season with this race very much in mind, the four-year-old has proven to be an ultra-consistent sort on the all-weather and whilst he has only recorded two career victories so far, Onesmoothoperator has done very little wrong in his recent outings.
Narrowly defeated by a short head over course and distance in March, he went on to run a tremendous race in a valuable conditions race over track and trip the following month. Beaten under two lengths on that occasion, he was far from disgraced behind Marshall Plan and Nigel Twiston-Davies’ progressive dual-purpose performer Earlofthecotswolds.
Freshened up since with a recent spin in a Listed event at York, connections have clearly had Saturday’s staying contest as a target for quite some time for Onesmoothoperator and the four-year-old should make a bold bid as he returns to his favoured all-weather surface this weekend.
Trainer Brian Ellison can land Newcastle’s feature contest on Saturday afternoon.
Duke De Sessa (4:20 Curragh)
DUKE DE SESSA appeared to be a colt progressing at a rate of knots last season, picking up a one-mile maiden at this track on soft ground in August before rounding the campaign off with a strong staying performance to land the Group 3 Eyrefield Stakes at Leopardstown in October.
However, since returning as a three-year-old, things haven’t gone quite to plan for the son of Lope De Vega in his three racecourse outings. Third in the Group 3 Ballysax Stakes on his seasonal reappearance, he then faced a difficult task when bumping into Aidan O’Brien’s Stone Age in the Derby Trial at the same venue just over a month later. Dropped back to a mile on his most recent start, he ran much better when keeping on noticeably well inside the closing stages to finish fifth in the Irish 2,000 Guineas behind Charlie Appleby’s Native Trail.
Although he still has some questions to answer, Duke De Sessa is certainly capable of making his mark in Group company at some stage this season and with the forecast rain definitely in his favour this weekend, it would be no surprise to see Dermot Weld’s three-year-old bounce back to winning ways with conditions very much in his favour.
Duke De Sessa (left) can get off the mark this season at the Curragh.
Bookmark (6:30 Doncaster)
A line can be drawn through BOOKMARK’S latest run at Chester where the four-year-old filly was slowly away and could never land a serious blow to those ahead of her. Prior to that, Mark Loughnane’s charge had been a cosy winner over this very course and distance on just her second start since transferring over from Michael Bell’s yard.
Despite conceding weight to her five rivals on Saturday evening, connections have enlisted the services of talented Apprentice rider Ryan Sexton who takes off a very useful 5lb. Rated 72, Bookmark should have every chance of doubling her tally over course and distance and rates a confident selection.