The weekend before Christmas is a busy one on the racing front, with six races televised on ITV on Saturday. There will be four races from Ascot’s Howden Christmas Family Raceday and a further two races from Haydock’s Tommy Whittle Chase Day.
- 1:50 Ascot: Howden Graduation Chase – Jungle Boogie @ 7/2
- 2:05 Haydock: Betfred Tommy Whittle Handicap Chase – Regal Blue @ 9/1
- 2:25 Ascot: Howden Long Walk Hurdle – Strong Leader @ 9/4
- 2:40 Haydock: Betfred Hat-Trick Heaven Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle – Lune De La Mer @ 4/1
- 3:00 Ascot: Howden Silver Cup Handicap Chase – Victtorino @ 2/1
- 3:35 Ascot: Ladbrokes Handicap Hurdle – Favour And Fortune @ 14/1
Four races will be shown live on ITV from the second day of Ascot’s Christmas fixture on Saturday. The first televised race from Berkshire will be the Graduation Chase which has a talented if select field of just four runners set to go to post. Oliver Greenall and Josh Guerriero’s Iroko currently shades favouritism ahead of Willie Mullins’ James Du Berlais, Henry de Bromhead’s Jungle Boogie and Gordon Elliott’s Fil Dor.
The second live race from Ascot is the weekend’s feature contest, the Grade 1 Long Walk Hurdle. The market is headed by Olly Murphy’s Strong Leader off the back of victory in last month’s Long Distance Hurdle at Newbury and in the Liverpool Hurdle at Aintree back in April. We’ve yet to see an Irish trained winner of this race but Gordon Elliott’s The Wallpark, Henry de Bromhead’s Hiddenvalley Lake, Charles Byrnes’ Shoot First and William Durkan’s Eagle Fang will be looking to break that duck.
Two valuable Premier Handicaps close the show, the £100,000 Howden Silver Cup and the £125,000 Ladbrokes Handicap Hurdle. Venetia Willliams’ Victtorino won last year’s Silver Cup and is favourite to record back-to-back victories in the race and continue the excellent recent form of the Hertfordshire based trainer.
Haydock’s penultimate meeting of the year will provide two races on the ITV card, the first being the title race of their Tommy Whittle Chase Day. This Class 2 handicap is worth £50k, with over £26k going to the winner. Famous Bridge for Nicky Richards was victorious in this race last year and is the favourite to win again but will have to overcome carrying top weight on soft ground in order to do so. The second race covered from Merseyside will be the Betfred Handicap Hurdle.