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

For today's horse racing tips, our analyst James Boyle looks at the flat racing at York, 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 be moved in by the betting public. Odds stated are correct at the time of publishing.

Running P/L for the 2025 Flat Season - 269.00pts staked, 275.26pts returned; +6.26pts.

13:30 York – Star Material – 1pt @ 18/1

I’m going to take a chance on Star Material. Whether he’s up to this level yet is unknown but in the longer term, I think he will be and he should keep improving for his experiences. He ran a cracking race when second at Ayr on the back of a mid-season break and may sharpen up for it.

That was just a nursery but the figure achieved doesn’t put him that far down the list. It was also his first attempt at 6f and he was faced with soft ground for the first time. Returning to a better surface can help and, at the current prices on offer, he simply looks too big to ignore.

15:15 York – Dark Cloud Rising – 1pt @ 25/1

Dark Cloud Rising is a three-year-old and may be better suited to this sort of race next season. I’m going to play, however, as 25/1 makes the risk worthwhile and it’s easy enough to forgive his last run when reappearing just a week after a big effort behind Eternal Sunshine.

Both of his August runs were a step up on his previous form and he seems to have the tools needed to cope with the York test. A low draw is no harm, Tudhope is back on board and the ground will be quicker than it was last time. If he’s at his recent best level, he’s not a 25/1 chance.