Saturday's Horse Racing Tips: James Boyle's Best Bets at Ascot & Haydock

For today's horse racing tips, our analyst James Boyle looks at the flat racing at Ascot and Haydock, with three selections now online.

As always, you’ll find the most up-to-date odds at the best horse racing betting sites, but our tipster’s predictions are researched early in the day and those prices could soon change. Odds stated are correct at the time of publishing.

16:15 Haydock – Poatan – 1pt @ 11/2

Poatan strikes me as the sort who can do better when there’s less of an emphasis on early pace and I’m going to take a punt on him now that he’s tackling a testing surface.

Whether it will suit remains to be seen but there was more of an ease underfoot than the going description suggested at Sandown on his penultimate start and he shaped well there.

Track position didn’t aid his cause at York since, nor did the nature of that race being flat-out from the word go, but he still performed fine for what was his handicap debut.

He has to give weight away to the field this time but I think there’s a better chance of him doing that than beating higher-level handicappers and if he handles the ground, he’ll be involved late.

16:35 Ascot – Fast Track Harry – 1pt @ 6/1

We all know the definition of insanity and my persistence with Fast Track Harry is probably the next step up that ladder. I’ve backed him too many times at this stage, and here we go again.

I thought he’d win the Great St Wilfrid at Ripon last time but he ended up on the wing of the group and didn’t seem to enjoy the nature of the track, eventually finishing six lengths back.

That was disappointing but wasn’t the true reflection of where he’s at and I’d prefer to concentrate on his previous spin when second to Amazing Journey over C&D.

He tanked his way through that, doing too much in truth, but kept on after going forward too early and has a bigger performance in him if his energy can be harnessed correctly.

Returning to Ascot should see him show up a lot better and there’s nothing in the opposition at the level Amazing Journey was at. As a result, I’ll give Fast Track Harry one last chance. 

Until the next last chance…

16:50 Haydock – Darkness – 1pt @ 10/1

There’s rarely much love for Darkness in the betting these days and he has been 22/1 or bigger for each of this season’s seven visits to the racecourse.

He’s not quite that price today but is still available at double figures and that looks generous now that he’s below both of his winning marks from 2025, and has his sights lowered into a 0-90.

Racing against Forty Years On was a waste of time for everything in the field at Goodwood last week and Darkness had the widest stall, which limited his claims even further.

However, he finished strong on testing ground and was over a length clear of his stablemate Rhoscolyn, who is currently around 7/2 for this contest.

The draw is workable if they want to position him a bit handier and I’m hopeful we’ll see a better performance this time around. He has shaped well on this track before, too.