Horse Racing Tips: Mick Fitzgerald's Saturday Cheltenham picks

Mick Fitzgerald’s Cheltenham Racing Tips

13:45 Good Risk At All
14:20 Il Ridoto
14:55 Buddy One
15:30 Springwell Bay

*All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change.

13:45 Good Risk At All

Sam Thomas’ GOOD RISK AT ALL bolted up at Carlisle. Nigel Twiston Davies has two runners in the race but his son Sam has got off them to ride Good Risk, that would have been an interesting discussion, he is obviously Sam’s ride but Charlie Deutsch rode him at Carlisle and is there too so it would have taken a bit of arm twisting.

I loved the way this horse went through the race at Carlisle and think he has a bright future over fences. This is a good race and Mister Coffey who led over the last in the Grand National is amazingly still a novice. He does normally improve for his first run.

14:20 Il Ridoto

The Paddy Power Gold Cup (2.20pm) is and always will be the first of the big target races in the National Hunt season for chasers. I may be off the mark but I am willing to forgive IL RIDOTO his runs at the back end of last season. I would rather judge him on what he did in the first half of the season. If you do that, he suddenly becomes attractive.

Freddie Gingell takes 5lbs off too which is a help. He is 4lbs better off at the weights with Fugitif than when beating him last season and that’s before the claim, so a 9lb swing is decent.

Fugitif ticks a lot of the right boxes but so does Stage Star. He won a Grade 1 at the Festival and has a great record when fresh. I feel I could be missing a trick not siding with him but the weight swing for Il Ridoto sways my thinking. Unexpected Party won nicely at Chepstow beating Knappers HIll who franked the form last weekend. I am just not sure he can make up the ground on Stage Star from last season.

14:55 Buddy One

Paul Gilligan once trained the winner of the Albert Bartlett so is no stranger to the winners enclosure here. BUDDY ONE was third in the Martin Pipe Conditional Hurdle and also ran really well at Aintree last year. He is higher in the weights now, but as a six year old he should be up to the rise as he is bound to be stronger this year.

The trainer’s son rides and knows this horse really well having won at Galway in a really good contest. Judicial Law is the obvious one to challenge after a really good run at the track last time.

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15:30 Springwell Bay

SPRINGWELL BAY will be better this season and his run behind Irish Point at Aintree reads very well. You can’t help but feel there is more to come. His beating of Attaca and Persian Time at Ascot is very good form.

He is just a bit buzzy and if he is a little more mature in his outlook this season he prove better than this handicap mark. Resplendent Grey will have plenty of supporters (particularly if Captain Teague wins on Friday) as he finished runner-up in the Persian War Hurdle to Captain Teague so that gives him a chance.