Horse Racing Tips: Mark Milligan's best bets for Saturday's Haydock racing

Haydock, 14:20 - Back Princling @ 3/14.00

On a packed Saturday of racing, Haydock takes centre stage in the UK and the first selection comes in one of my favourite three-year-old handicaps of the entire season, the Silver Bowl.

This race nearly always produces strong form and this year's renewal should prove no exception, with 17 runners heading to post, quite a few of which have the potential to graduate from handicaps into stakes races as the season progresses.

The likes of Langstone and Lighting Thunder deserve to be high on any shortlist, but the one with the most potential for me simply has to be the William Haggas-trained Princling.

A son of Kingman, Princling got off the mark at the third time of asking in a novice at Wetherby on his seasonal return last month, still looking far from the finished article but only needing hand riding to assert.

However, it's not the form of that contest that makes him stand out here but more the form of his second to Yazin on the second of two starts that Princling made as a juvenile.

That one bolted up again on his next start and now boasts a Timeform rating of 111p, which suggests the selection could well be a handicap blot starting out life in this sphere from a mark of just 87.

Haydock, 16:05 - Back Hermetic @ 5/16.00

The closing ITV race at Haydock is a 2m handicap and the one that heads the market is Charlie Johnston's Pole Star, who ran really well in a first-time visor to finish third in a similar contest at Newmarket last time. Not much has run from out of that race yet so the jury is out as to how strong the form is, but a repeat of that effort should see Pole Star go close, though he's probably priced about right at 10/34.33.

The one that takes my eye is the much less exposed Hermetic, a French import who has only the five starts under his belt and has already been successful in two of them in his homeland.

The Ian Williams-trained four-year-old made his handicap/stable bow at the York Dante meeting and shaped really well in fourth.

That was his first start in 192 days and he looks sure to strip fitter for the run, particularly as he's a big, imposing type who would probably take a bit of getting fit at home. His trainer excels with this type and Hermetic went straight into my notebook on the back of that Knavesmire run.

Haydock, 17:15 - Back Stem @ 10/34.33

The final race of the day at Haydock takes place when the ITV cameras have stopped rolling but it's no less interesting for it and I like the chances of Richard Hannon's Stem in this 1m handicap.

The selection boasted some strong handicap form as three-year-old and, while his comeback run on the back of gelding operation at Newbury was a tad disappointing, I'm happy to give him another chance.

Stem finished second in two good quality handicaps last season, when behind subsequent Balmoral Handicap winner Crown of Oaks in one, and also when failing to give weight to the progressive Eternal Force, who was sent off favourite for this season's Lincoln before finishing seventh.

That one also lines up here, but Stem has a big pull at the weights with his old foe and that may well be enough to see him turn the tables. There's also a chance that his Newbury comeback was just needed and he could well strip much fitter with that outing under his belt.

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