Saturday's Bets of the Day: Selections for racing at Newmarket and York plus EFL football
Our racing and football teams highlight their best bets for Saturday's sport, including an Alan King runner at Newmarket and Tom Carnduff's strongest EFL fancy.
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Racing
There appeared absolutely no fluke about the sweeping success of TRITONIC at Newbury last month and he’s fancied to provide trainer Alan King with a rare Group-race victory on the level.
The well-bred son of Sea The Moon made a reasonable level of improvement from his first to second start – winning a small event at Ffos Las towards the end of August – but clearly took his form to new heights in the Haynes, Hanson & Clark last time out.
That race may not carry quite the same lustre as it once did but this year’s renewal looked well up to scratch with the exciting Cape Palace held in third.
Tritonic, who was initially bought for juvenile hurdling according to his owners, was so strong at the finish and will relish every yard of Saturday’s 10-furlong trip, while further easing of the ground should also play to his strengths.
This Group Three looks the ideal next step with Doncaster’s Vertem Futurity looming large later in the month (holds an entry) if all goes to plan.
York punters might have bad memories of CONVICT as he was backed into 2/1 favouritism for a novice race at the track last month when everything went wrong. He stumbled badly five furlongs from home and then Danny Tudhope lost his irons, so he was eased home in sixth.
However, since then he’s gone in at Redcar with a smooth performance and he returns to York for his nursery debut over a mile on soft ground off a mark of 83.
The son of Australia can hopefully banish his bad memories of the last time he ran on the Knavesmire and land another decent York pot for his trainer.
Andrew Balding's recruit has finally got some cut in the ground and he looks a serious contender back at York where he was a good second to Forest Of Dean on his penultimate outing.
RANCH HAND looks a progressive three-year-old and runs like a thorough stayer.
Trained by Andrew Balding, whose father Ian won the race with Top Cees and Distant Prospect, the son of Melbourne Cup winner Dunaden is out of a talented mare called Victoria Montoya who stayed two miles.
It looks like Balding might have had Classic aspirations for Ranch Hand earlier in the season as, after two bloodless Southwell victories, he ran in the Lingfield Trial finishing a keeping-on fifth behind the subsequent Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck.
Then, conditions appeared too lively for Ranch Hand in the Bahrain Trophy, a trial for the St Leger, next time at Newmarket, but he was again putting in good late work and, dropped to handicap company on his latest start at Haydock, he completely out-galloped his rivals over a mile and six furlongs on soft ground. That form was given two solid boosts when the runner-up Trueshan won Friday's Old Rowley Handicap at Newmarket while third-placed Elysian Flame chased home the progressive Hamish at York.
A pound well in here compared to the future, Oisin Murphy's mount could be open to much more improvement than many others in the big field and 8st 8lb is a fighting weight.
Football
CAMBRIDGE may only sit two points ahead of Salford in the standings, but their away form makes for pleasing reading.
The U's have the third best record on the road in the division with just one away loss so far. They have bounced back with two wins and a draw since then.
They can draw confidence from that form away, but a look towards Salford's home record also makes you question that 21/10 price on a Cambridge win here.
Graham Alexander's men have seen just two wins in front of their own supporters and have managed to collect eight points from a possible 18. That puts them 15th in the home standings.
Given the contrasting forms it's worth taking the price available on an away win. Cambridge may also be a team to include in the weekend accumulators to boost the odds.
Georgia have just one draw to show for 11 previous meetings with the Irish and 10 defeats. Ireland's friendly win over Bulgaria will give them great confidence, especially scoring three times, and they should have enough here to take all three points.
Spain to win & both teams to score
Norway have lost just once in six qualifiers yet find themselves in almost must-win territory in a brutal group with Spain running away with things and Sweden and Romania ahead of the Norwegians and facing easy games on Saturday.
The reverse fixture may have been just a 2-1 win to Spain, but the hosts dominated possession and had a whopping 26 shots to Norway's four, and it's a tough ask to turn that sort of dominance around even with home advantage.
That home advantage hasn't counted for much other than goals so far for Norway, who blew two-goal leads against both Romania and Sweden - even needing a 97th minute equaliser in a 3-3 draw with the Swedes in March.
That's music to Spain's collective ears as they've bagged at least twice in each of their last six away days and have plundered 17 goals in qualifying already, so with these in mind you can kind of guess which way we expect this one to turn out.
In Sky Bet League One, BRISTOL ROVERS host MK Dons. Graham Coughlan's Rovers have lost just one of their last eight league games (W5 D2), with the Gas currently on a five-game unbeaten streak (W3 D2), while PORTSMOUTH welcome Gillingham to Fratton Park looking to extend their unbeaten run to four matches.
In Sky Bet League Two, BRADFORD can also go four unbeaten as they travel to Morecambe and CAMBRIDGE make the trip to Salford, who have won just two of their last 11 league fixtures.
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