Ginger Joe - Betting Tips for Ascot Saturday 17 February 2024

Preview and betting tips for Ascot on Saturday

We are only 24 days out from the Cheltenham Festival, but we still have plenty of Graded action to get through first. Starting with Ascot tomorrow, where we have the Grade 2 Reynoldstown Novices’ Chase, and also the Grade 1 Betfair Ascot Chase where L’Homme Presse puts in his final appearance before he heads to the Gold Cup.

I have previewed both races for you and picked out two strong selections, so hopefully we can have a nice profitable weekend. In the coming weeks I have loads of Festival content coming your way - all roads lead to Cheltenham from now on!

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13:50 Ascot – The Reynoldstown Novices’ Chase 2m 7f (Grade 2) – Kilbeg King

The Reynoldstown is always a fantastic race and we have a good lineup again this year. Apple Away currently heads the betting at a very short price and she is a lovely mare, but too hard to back at this moment in time. She travels nicely, jumps well, and is seemingly improving for each run, but I feel she’ll need to find a lot more to get her head in front of the geldings.

Brave Kingdom, who runs for Paul Nicholls, is a very likeable horse who came back from a long absence to win two on the bounce. You won't see many come back and do that, particularly with the calibre of fields he was up against both times. I can only assume there is still more to come from him and with top connections teaming up here, he commands respect.

The one that takes the beating for me though is Kilbeg King, who has improved in all of his three starts over fences so far, and the step up to this trip last time out seemingly brought out even more improvement in him. He is still unexposed over this trip and I think he is the best value selection in the race.

15:36 Ascot – The Betfair Ascot Chase 2m 5f (Grade 1) – L’Homme Presse

We may only have the four runners in the Ascot Chase but it’s a cracking field and a tricky race to figure out. Sail Away is the one that falls short on class here but he has the opportunity to pick up some good prize money nonetheless.

Ahoy Senor is a tough one to figure out. We know he is very talented on his day, but he has a terribly bad habit of jumping out to both sides during the race and is almost his own worst enemy. Also, connections seem sure they want to try to hold him up, but to me that makes him too keen, which is a big worry for me. I think if they let him go off in front and do his own thing, he would have a much better chance.

Pic D’Orhy has everything in his favour here, and with him skipping Cheltenham, he is going to be geared up to the max for this race. He is very good over this trip and travels easily on this surface too. He is also much better suited to this trip compared to the others in this race.

However, I think L’homme Presse will take some stopping here. He came back from nearly a year off to win last time out, and connections are keen to get this run into him before he takes a tilt at the Gold Cup. This trip is a little shorter than adequate for him, but he has won over this distance before and I trust connections to have him spot on for a big run here.

Betting Tips for Ascot

• 13:50 - Kilbeg King
• 15:36 - L’Homme Presse

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