Saturday Racing Cheat Sheet: Best bets for ITV Racing on Betfair Chase Day at Haydock

• Saturday Racing Cheat Sheet for Haydock and Ascot

• Get our tipsters' best bets and ambassador insight

• Paul Nicholls previews his runners exclusively for Betfair

• Tips from Katie Midwinter and more experts

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Tips Summary

Race	Tipster	Tip	Odds
13:15 Haydock	Katie Midwinter	Kabral Du Mathan	Win @ 6/42.50
13:30 Ascot	Mark Milligan	Il Est Francais	Win @ 2/13.00
13:50 Haydock	Timeform Verdict	The Jukebox Man	Win @ 8/131.61
14:25 Haydock	Sam Turner	Electric Mason	E/W @ 11/112.00
14:40 Ascot	Sam Turner	Altobelli	E/W @ 15/28.50
15:00 Haydock	Alan Dudman	Haiti Couleurs	Win @ 10/34.33

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Saturday horse racing tips and insight

13:15 Haydock - Katie Midwinter: Kabral Du Mathan will be hard to beat

On the back of a wind operation and making his first start for Dan Skelton, Kabral Du Mathan makes the most appeal in this field. He has been consistent throughout his six-race career so far, achieving form figures of 111222, with two of his wins and three placed efforts, including a narrow defeat in the Scottish Champion Hurdle, for former trainer Paul Nicholls. 

There's plenty of substance to his form, with good efforts behind Fiercely Proud and Secret Squirrel creditable performances, and from only 1lb higher than his latest effort, he holds solid claims at the weights. This is only his seventh run, and he's capable of showing further progression. 

The five-year-old is the one to beat in this field, and could prove tough to pass under Harry Skelton.

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13:30 Ascot - Paul Nicholls: Pic D'orhy looks fresh and well

We were thrilled with his run in the Charlie Hall at Wetherby at the start of November. He came out of it well. We were just a bit concerned that he had a hard race and it has only been three weeks. He loves Ascot, it is a small field and he looks fresh and well. So we are happy for him to run in a race he won last year. We will let him take his chance. Having had a run won't do him any harm.

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13:30 Ascot - Mark Milligan: Il Est Francais record fresh bodes well

I fancied Il Est Francais for last year's King George and he ran a belter to finish second to Banbridge in the Boxing Day highlight. He didn't fare quite so well in the Ryanair at Cheltenham next time, but that isn't a track that plays quite so much to his strengths as Kempton and Ascot should suit him better.

This will be his first outing back over fences after a couple of spins over the smaller obstacles at the back-end of last term and he has now re-joined Tom George, who trained him earlier in his career. Il Est Francais has a good record fresh and I'm hopeful a win here will set him up for another tilt at Kempton's Christmas showpiece.

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13:50 Haydock - Timeform Verdict: Jukebox set to play right tune

The Jukebox Man had his novice chase campaign curtailed by injury but this looks a good chance for him to resume with a win, as main form threat Iroko ideally needs further, while Knappers Hill has a 2-year absence to overcome.

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14:25 Haydock - Sam Turner: Back an Electric run from Mason 

Chris Gordon's horses are 14-47 since the beginning of September and the relative of Ballabriggs really is bred to come into his own over these distances. The selection bumped into The New Lion a couple of times last term and, after a couple of reverse in handicaps in the spring, began the campaign on what appeared a lenient mark.

Although nudged up 4lb for that fine second behind Ma Shantou, the six-year-old should still be highly competitive off 132 in this Betfair Stayers' Handicap Hurdle and, given this is a valuable race in its own right, connections will surely be striving to lift the prize and not be thinking about March.

 

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14:40 Ascot - Sam Turner: Back Altobelli to surprise

Altobelli knows the Royal venue almost as well as clerk of the course Chris Stickles, boasting track stats of 2311, with the last two successes achieved in the tongue tie and cheekpieces combination that he retains today.

Key to the seven-year-old's improvement has been the relationship with Bryan Carver. The duo have teamed up eight times and, if Altobelli's two runs in Grade 1 events at Aintree are excused, the partnership has won all six of their remaining outings together. They have the opportunity to improve those remarkable stats here and I'm hopeful the fact this is a 'home tie' for Harry Fry's hurdler can see him pull off a mini surprise.

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15:00 Haydock - Alan Dudman: Back Haiti Couleurs to win the Betfair Chase

Haiti Couleurs is in the same position as Grey Dawning was 12 months ago - ie a novice coming into top company and bridge that gap. He's a 154-rated fencer which still has him 12lbs behind Grey Dawning officially but he is one of two in the field along with Handstands with race fitness on his side with a nice win over hurdles.

As 3m6f National Hunt Chase winner and 3m5f Irish Grand National, emphatically he stays, and while the question is a perfectly sound one to raise in terms of the class angle for the race, we've seen in the past with Bristol De Mai that a certain type of horse does ever so well in this.

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