Horse Racing Tips: Mark Milligan with three to back on Thursday at up to 17/2

• Boubyan can strike on second handicap start

• Haggas runner to be revitalised by headgear

• Well-bred filly interesting on handicap debut

15:15 Newbury - Back Boubyan @ 5/2

We're into the peak of the flat season now with Royal Ascot just around the corner and there's plenty of racing again on Thursday for us to get our teeth into.

Starting off at Newbury and I fancy Andrew Balding's Boubyan to build on the potential he showed when third on handicap debut at Windsor last month. That race was run at just a steady gallop and my feeling is that Boubyan will emerge as the best horse in the long-term despite being narrowly defeated.

He only went down by less than half a length and would probably have won had he been just a little more streetwise, running green over 1f out after not getting the best of passages.

That was only his fourth lifetime run having had three quiet outings in maiden/novice company and his useful pedigree strongly suggests he'll leave a handicap mark of 70 well behind in time.

16:25 Newbury - Back Altmore E/W @ 17/2

This 7f handicap has a competitive look to it and likely favourite Believe The Storm is clearly open to plenty of progress as he makes his third start and his first in a handicap.

A winner on debut at Wolverhampton at the back-end of 2024, the son of Make Believe ran equally as well under a penalty when second at Kempton last month and will clearly be popular given his lightly-raced profile. However, he's facing some battle-hardened types here and this isn't an easy spot for an inexperienced horse to make his handicap debut.

With that in mind, I'm going to side with the William Haggas-trained Altmore.

This one was quite progressive as a three-year-old and his last run when down the field at York last time can be easily forgiven on account of him meeting several bits of trouble.

The Haggas team are in good form and it could well be significant that Altmore sports first -time cheekpieces here, which could help him resume the progress we saw last season.

16:47 Yarmouth - Back Inquisition @ 15/4

This class 6 handicap won't take a great deal of winning and there could be plenty more to come from James Fanshawe's Sea The Stars filly Inquisition.

Owned by Cheveley Park, she sports a fine pedigree, as you'd expect from that outfit, and her three runs in minor company/maidens should have seasoned her nicely as she heads into her first handicap.

She was trained by Sir Michael Stoute for her debut last season but has been with the Fanshawe yard since then and looks to have been brought along with handicaps in mind.

The selection is a half-sister to the useful Nuance (who had Timeform rating of 100 at her peak) and the fact that she makes her handicap debut from a mark of just 60 makes her of interest for that alone.

It's likely that this mile trip will be a minimum for Inquisition going forward, but she looks fine kept to that distance for now and I'll be disappointed if she doesn't go very close.

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