Saturday's Horse Racing Tips: James Boyle's Best Bets At Epsom

For today's horse racing tips, our analyst James Boyle looks at the flat racing at Epsom, with two 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.

15:15 Epsom – Vintage Clarets – 1pt @ 12/1

I’m going to back a couple of runners in the Dash, Vintage Clarets being the shortest of the pair in the betting and I had a good go at him when he ran in this race off 11lbs higher last year.

He gave it a decent rattle, only beaten a few lengths, and I’m still convinced he has more to offer in this unique test. There’s reason his mark has come down so much, of course, but there were some signs of life from a bad draw at Chester on his penultimate start and his last spin was at York.

There wasn’t much to write home about on that occasion but I’d always forgive a horse not firing up York’s straight and he may just be taking time to properly come to hand this term.

It’s safe to say that this isn’t a simple race in which to hope for a revival but there are no weight issues, he has what should be a good draw and any rain will benefit him more than many others. At 12/1, it’s worth taking a chance on him making it third time lucky in the race.

15:15 Epsom – Betsen – 1pt @ 33/1

Betsen is the other one I like and he’s a big price despite returning to winning ways at Chepstow a couple of weeks ago, clearly appreciating the drop back to 5f for the first time with this yard.

The level of opposition that day was very far removed from what he’s taking on here but he has tools that may be able to yield a big performance at Epsom if he can latch onto the main pack early. Blinkers going on again could help there and he’s well able to travel through a race.

Rain wouldn’t inconvenience his cause either and I have a suspicion that he’ll like how this pans out. Finding the right position to take advantage of sitting off such an extreme tempo is another story and I don’t know if stall five will work out for him, but I’m happy to find out.