Horse Racing Tips: Mark Milligan's three best bets on Friday

14:35 Ascot - Back Sweet William @ 13/82.63

I'll be honest, I came into this column looking to put up several bets at Punchestown on Friday, but the overall card makes little appeal from a punting perspective, and I won't tip horses simply for the sake of it. My ethos for this column has always been to tip horses that I'm backing myself and I'm not about to change that now.

Moving on, while there isn't anything over the jumps that floats my boat, we do have cracking flat action at both Ascot and Newmarket to get stuck into, with plenty of the races being covered by ITV, too.

While he does have a quirk or two, it's hard to knock Sweet William's overall record and he'll take all the beating on his comeback run in the Group 3 Longines Sagaro Stakes over 2m.

The winner of the Doncaster Cup for the last two seasons has compiled a stellar record in all the major staying races over the last few years and has yet to finish out of the first four in a career spanning 21 outings.

Rab Havlin gets on really well with the tricky seven-year-old and the conditions of this race are in his favour, getting 2lb off main danger Caballo De Mar despite being officially rated 3lb superior to that one.

15:45 Ascot - Back Remmooz @ 4/15.00

The Listed Paradise Stakes over 1m is a trial for the Quenn Anne at Royal Ascot and if any of the nine-strong field are to make an impact in that contest, for my money it would be Remmooz.

Owen Burrows' four-year-old did nothing but progress last season and he rounded off his campaign by graduating from handicaps to take a Newbury listed contest.

The runner-up that day, Volterra, paid a nice compliment to Remmooz on his seasonal return in the Doncaster Mile in March, finding only the genuine Group 1 performer Docklands too strong in that contest.

I've got Remmooz earmarked for some good races this year and I'll be a tad disappointed if he doesn't go on to be at least a Group performer. With that in mind, he'll need to be taking this if he's to fulfil those aspirations.

Of the opposition, it may well be Jonquil who gives the selection most to do.

Andrew Balding's colt has been globetrotting for his last few starts but has form at this track and looks another who could well progress from three to four.

16:40 Newmarket - Back Saber Strike @ 16/54.20

There's some classy racing at HQ in front of the ITV cameras on Friday but the best bet may well be after the terrestrial coverage has ended.

The Listed King Charles II Stakes over 7f brings together six three-year-olds who possess varying degrees of promise but the one I'm most taken by is the once-raced Saber Strike.

Trained by William Haggas, this son of Night Of Thunder was sent up to Redcar for a back-end novice contest in November and made mincemeat of his fourteen rivals that day.

Always in command after quickening to lead around two furlongs from home, the selection breezed in three lengths ahead of Spaceman and Cape Ashizuri, who won a Pontefract handicap on his seasonal return and duly recorded a Timeform rating of 97 in the process.

When you bear in mind how Saber Strike treated that one with contempt at Redcar, it could be that we're dealing with a potentially very smart prospect.

Not known for tilting at windmills, it looks significant that Haggas has decided to pitch this one straight into listed company off the back off just a sole run, too.

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