Weekend tips for Haydock and Ascot

Quality staying handicaps are my favourite flat races for betting purposes. Unlike with sprints, the wager is not almost certainly lost if the horse you backed is slowly away or gets hampered in running. In staying races there is plenty of time to make up for some bad luck so the best horse on the day usually wins.

Tomorrow’s Betfair Exchange Old Borough Cup Handicap is just the sort of race that I like to tackle as a gambler

Tomorrow’s Betfair Exchange Old Borough Cup Handicap (Haydock, 3.05 p.m.) over one mile and six furlongs is therefore just the sort of race that I like to tackle as a gambler. Aegean Prince and Finalise are both lightly raced four-year-old horses from fashionable yards so it is not surprising to see them at the head of the market for tomorrow’s contest but best prices of 11-4 and 4-1 respectively look skinny given the strength of this 14-runner field.

I would much rather be on a hardened handicapper in the shape of STRESSFREE especially as he is a lot better on properly soft ground, a surface he will encounter tomorrow for the first time this season.

In fact, his last run was a good one when sixth to Daiquiri Bay in the Sky Bet Ebor Handicap at York a fortnight ago. Stressfree can run off an official rating of 97 tomorrow, 2lbs less than at York. Last season he was fourth in the Ebor off a mark of 101 before going on to be third in this Haydock race off a mark of 102. In short, the handicapper has given him a good chance of winning tomorrow.

Still only six years old, Stressfree should be at his peak for a stayer and so back him 1 point each way at 8-1 with William Hill, paying four places.

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However, Danny Tudhope, stable jockey to trainer David O’Meara, has surprised me by choosing to ride Stressfree’s stable mate ASHNAK, another horse that loves soft ground and who has plenty of scope for improvement having only joined this North Yorkshire yard earlier this season.

Ashnak was disappointing at York last time out but that was on ground too fast for his liking and he is better judged on two better previous runs at Ayr and York again. The fact that Tudhope prefers him to Stressfree makes me want to go in double-handed in the race on both stablemates. Back Ashnak 1 point each way at 14-1 with bet365, Betfred, Bet Victor, Ladbrokes or Coral, all paying four places.

The big race at Haydock tomorrow is the Group 1 Betfair Sprint Cup (3.40 p.m.) which currently has a field of just nine runners, with the possibility of a defection or two yet because of the deteriorating ground.

I put up Kind of Blue each way at 25-1 for this race a week ago with the expectation that he would get his preferred soft ground. The rain has indeed come so he is now a top-priced 4-1 with jockey James Doyle preferring to ride him rather than the other Wathnan Racing-owned runner, Paborus. Here’s hoping for a big run from trainer James Fanshawe’s charge with the stable in fine form.

Ascot has missed most of the heavy rain this week and the ground should be predominantly “good” by the off today. However, all ground comes alike to trainer Jamie Osborne’s eight-year-old gelding HICKORY, who is a real course specialist.

Today Hickory can run today in the Ascot Hospitality Handicap (4.48 p.m.) off an official mark of 95, just 2 lbs higher than winning over course and distance in a slowly-run race in July with Saffie Osborne, the handler’s daughter, in the saddle.

Saffie Osborne takes the ride again today so back Hickory 1 point each way at 8-1 with William Hill, Sky Bet, Paddy Power or Betfair, all paying four places in this 13-runner contest.

I am hoping that Hard Endeavor runs a decent race in this race because, only a week ago, I put him up each way at 40-1 for the Cambridgeshire. The four-year-old colt could easily win today but I will not go into this race double handed as this may essentially be a prep race before the horse steps up in trip at Newmarket on September 26.

Pending:

1 point each way Hickory at 8-1 for the Ascot Hospitality Handicap, paying 1/5^th odds, 4 places.

1 point each way Stressfree at 8-1 for the Old Borough Handicap paying 1/5^th odds, 4 places.

1 point each way Ashnak at 14-1 for the Old Borough Handicap, paying 1/5^th odds, 4 places.

1 point each way Kind of Blue at 25-1 for the Sprint Cup, paying 1/5^th odds, 3 places.

1 point each way Caburn at 40-1 for the Ayr Gold Cup, paying 1/4 odds, 4 places.

1 point each way Hard Endeavor at 40-1 for the Cambridgeshire, paying 1/4 odds, 4 places.

Last weekend: quits

1 point each way Warrant Holder at 6-1 for the Weatherbys August Stakes, paying 1/5^th odds, 3 places. Non runner. Stake returned.

2026 flat season running total: + 26.225 points.

2025-26 jumps season: – 57.785 points on all tips.

2025 flat season: + 84.12 points on all tips.