Saturday's best bets
Saturday's best bets

Bets of the Day: Horse racing, football and Formula One


Our experts provide their best bets for Saturday's top-class racing, domestic football and the United States Grand Prix.

Racing

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Ben Linfoot

Magical to win the 2.40 Ascot

MAGICAL looks the one to be on in the QIPCO British Champion Fillies & Mares Stakes (2.40) at Ascot on Champions Day.

Aidan O’Brien’s filly has another John Gosden hotpot to overcome in Lah Ti Dar, but she looks vulnerable to me after a hard race in the St Leger and plenty of potential is factored into her short odds as she’s yet to prove she’s better than a handful of her opposition on Saturday.

Magical is really interesting, as she was a top-class juvenile on soft ground and has shown glimpses of what she’s capable of this year despite a stop-start season. It’s a fairly quick turnaround from Longchamp for Magical, but she has the look of a filly that could take off very soon and I can’t resist taking on Lah Ti Dar with the daughter of Galileo.

David Ord

Mitchum Swagger to win the 4.30 Ascot

He's in danger of becoming a cliff horse but I can't let MITCHUM SWAGGER go unbacked here.

He made a very promising start for new trainer Ralph Beckett when third in a red-hot Lincoln at Doncaster in March. That form has worked out well but the six-year-old wasn't seen again until the late September, when he was all-the-rage for a Haydock handicap but the ground dried out and was totally against him.

He finished sixth but is much better than that and crucially gets his favoured surface here. He's a pound lower than at Town Moor and has form on the straight track at Ascot having finished third in the 2016 Hunt Cup (from three pounds higher). A big run is on the cards.

Matt Brocklebank

Roaring Lion to win the 3.15 Ascot

No shortage of John Gosden-trained bankers to choose from on Champions Day but ROARING LION is impossible to oppose in the QEII.

He's been a revelation through the middle part of the season and the way he knuckled down to beat Saxon Warrior in the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown was pretty sensational.

The others will need Roaring Lion to perform well below his best to stand any chance of beating him and while soft ground may not be absolutely ideal, he's proven with cut in the ground already and his class should see him through.

Simon Holt

Kynren to win the 4.30 Ascot

I will row in again with KYNREN in the closing Balmoral Handicap in the hope that the easier ground will bring out the best in him.

A smooth traveller, William Buick's mount has been knocking on the door in several big handicaps this season but his best winning efforts have come on the soft and he was third in the Spring Mile on a similar surface at Doncaster back in March.

Kynren has certainly been a bit expensive to follow, but he has more than enough ability to win one of these big handicaps.

Football

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George Pitts

Chelsea to win and over 1.5 goals

CHELSEA are odds-on but adding over 1.5 goals takes it odds-against and makes for a much more attractive price. The Blues have scored two or more in all of their Premier League victories this season, while in United's three league defeats they have conceded three goals each time.

United, without a league win at Chelsea since 2012, have not kept a clean sheet in their last four domestic outings and Chelsea are strongly fancied in what could be a high-scoring encounter.

Liverpool -1 to beat Huddersfield

LIVERPOOL will be keen to end a four-match winless run in all competitions and to keep up their Premier League title assault. The international break came at an ideal time for Klopp, in order to break that run of results, and Huddersfield do not look capable of ending their own 12-game winless run in the Premier League against a team of Liverpool's calibre.

The Terriers have been behind at both half-time and full-time in five of their last six home matches, so it is worth considering backing the visitors in the half-time/full-time market, but the handicap looks the safer play as either way their quality should ultimately show.

Paul Higham

Bournemouth to beat Southampton

It’s a relatively simple equation for this south coast derby as BOURNEMOUTH are unbeaten at home this season with three wins out of four while Southampton have lost three of four on the road and the respective form of these two makes this a home banker.

The Cherries are usually good for a few goals as well this season as Eddie Howe’s boys have entertained while marching up to sixth in the table and, given Southampton have just one win all season and have conceded plenty, then getting odds-against for a home win looks too good to turn down.

If this was a home fixture for any other team in the top ten of the Premier League than ‘little’ Bournemouth then you would not get anywhere near this price.

Tom Carnduff

Notts County to win and BTTS

Bury find themselves favourites when they welcome NOTTS COUNTY to Gigg Lane, but there is real value in backing an away win here.

What has been a common theme for these two teams so far this season is both teams scoring in their games. In the nine games since Kewell's arrival, County have had six where both have found the net while seven of Bury's last ten have seen the same.

There is a real potential for a repeat of that here, and that provides greater value to the already good odds available on an away victory.

Sporting Life Accumulator

Nottingham Forest, Sunderland, Notts County & Tranmere at 75/1

NFL

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Paul Higham

LA Chargers score over 26.5 pts at Evens

The Chargers are emerging as genuine contenders on 4-2 with those only pair of losses coming against unbeaten city rivals the LA Rams and the 5-1 divisional foes Kansas City Chiefs.

Veteran quarterback Philip Rivers leads the only NFL offence to have scored three touchdowns in every game so far as they average just under 30 points per game – with Rivers having thrown 15 TD passes and just three interceptions.

Their opponents at Wembley are the Tennessee Titans who haven't scored a touchdown in their last two games.

Formula 1

F1 Insider

Force India to score a double points finish

Seven of the last nine races have seen both pink cars in the points, with Sergio Perez landing "best of the rest" honours behind the Mercedes, Ferraris and Red Bulls in Japan two weeks ago.

Perez and Esteban Ocon can be trusted to get the maximum out of the car and this gives them the edge over Haas, whose car is arguably a fraction faster at its ultimate potential but cannot operate consistently at that level. 11/8 on another double-score looks more than fair.

Mercedes to score a double podium finish

Mercedes have really hit their straps over the final furlong of this F1 season, pulling clear of Ferrari and Red Bull in pure performance terms.

The Ferrari, in Sebastian Vettel's hands at least, was definitively the fastest car in the middle part of the season but the Scuderia have had no answer to the development upgrades introduced on the Silver Arrows in Singapore, Russia and Japan.

This leaves Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas with a small but significant edge in both qualifying and race pace, one which should continue in Austin this weekend.

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