Weekend Winners: Howden Ascot Hurdle best bets ahead of the feature

The Weekend Winners team are back with a look at Saturday’s Ascot Hurdle, plus a closer look at the other Graded action at Haydock.

Host Kate Tracey is joined by BetVictor’s Sam Boswell and Declan Rix of attheraces.com to pick out their best bets for the race, they also have a closer look at the Betfair Chase at Haydock. They also look ahead with ante-post selections.

Declan Rix…

“It’s a trappy race but I wanted to be against those at the top of the market. Golden Ace has a penalty to carry, obviously a Cheltenham Festival winner last season. You wonder: could she step forward for this contest?

“At the prices I was stuck between Thunder Rock and Lucky Place, but given they’re running off the same weights, Thunder Rock is the better horse of the two. He has got form here at Ascot, winning over fences there a couple of seasons ago. He is one of these horses, who does jump a fence well, but at those bigger tracks on softer ground and in bigger fields, he can come a little unstuck.

“He’s back over hurdles here and has gone well fresh before but if he runs to that hurdle rating, he is a good bet.”

Kate Tracey…

“I’m with Blueking d’Oroux, not only for the fact that the owner loves Ascot but the horse loves Ascot too. He won this race last year and I don’t think this year’s renewal is that much stronger, it was a cracking run from him, and he goes so well at this track.

“The fact that Harry Cobden elected to come down to this track, instead of going to Haydock. Last year he was worse in the weights, stepping up in trip and he just looked to relish it on that occasion, clearly taking a big step forward, he looked destined for more. I just thought that everything was ideal for him on Saturday.”

Sam Boswell…

“I view this race completely differently as I really like Jeremy Scott’s Golden Ace and think she’s a great price. I suppose the negatives are that win at Cheltenham and you could argue with Brighterdaysahead and the Willie Mullins horse that the race played into the hands of Lorcan Williams and maybe was it a soft win for the horse. She was a winner on the first start of the season previously and off a break, so I’m not worried about her first time out.

She’s unbeaten over hurdles, I just think there’s more to come from her and I really think she’s an exciting prospect. I went through the race and I couldn’t get too excited about too many in here and she could be a real superstar.”

Watch all the action from Ascot live on Sky Sports Racing