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Two tips at Newcastle from Kevin Blake
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Prominent racer Raatea can go well in the opener
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Tiber Flow fancied to bounce back to best
Royal Ascot may be in our rearview mirrors, but the top-class Flat action keeps on coming with the Irish Derby taking centre stage at the Curragh on Sunday.
Before that, ITV Racing will play host to competitive and high-class action at Newcastle and Newmarket on Saturday that will be the focus of this column.
Newcastle - 12:20: Back Raatea
The opener at Newcastle, the Jenningsbet Festival Handicap (12:20), is a tight sprint handicap, but one aspect of it that allows for some distillation is that the pace map suggests those that race prominently might well be favoured due to a lack of solid pace.
With that in mind, the Julie Camacho-trained Raatea looks to hold strong claims. The son of Invincible Spirit has run very well in all four of his starts at Newcastle, winning once and finishing in the frame on the other occasions.
Though, it may well be significant that he has only had one opportunity to run over six furlongs at this track and it was on that occasion that he won, producing arguably the best effort of his career.
The six-year-old showed good improvement from his seasonal reappearance to win a handicap at Haydock last time and there is good reason to think that he might well progress again in this contest. A career-best effort will likely be required, but with his trainer being in excellent form, it might well happen.
Newcastle - 12:55: Back Tiber Flow
The other race of interest is the Jenningsbet Chipchase Stakes (12:55) and it brings together a classy field of sprinters. Course form isn't a necessity here, but it is certainly an asset and one that has plenty of it is the William Haggas-trained Tiber Flow.
The four-year-old won his first two career starts at this track and is unfortunate not to be unbeaten here, as he lost out by just a short-head to the smart El Caballo on All-Weather Finals day last year.
He has acquitted himself well in Listed and Group company since then and most recently finished a solid second to the Group 1 winner Creative Force in a conditions race at Haydock in May. That run represented a step back towards his very best and the hope is that the return to this track will help him produce an even better effort.
The son of Caravaggio is a straightforward handy ride that seems nicely drawn in the context of the pace map. Tom Marquand has ridden him in the majority of his starts and with William Haggas seeming to be hitting form after a stop-start couple of months, Tiber Flow looks to have a very good chance of prevailing.
Get Tony Calvin's ITV Racing Saturday Tips here
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