Saturday racing tips: Verdicts on Winter Power, El Caballo, Tuesday and Native Trail

Winter Power – 6/4 for the Group 2 Temple Stakes, 3.45 Haydock

Nunthorpe heroine Winter Power makes her seasonal return in the Temple Stakes at Haydock on Saturday and on her York form she’s perfectly entitled to be 6/4, perhaps shorter.

She was three from three on the Knavesmire last season and both her Westow Stakes and Coolmore Nunthorpe successes make her the standout form chance this weekend.

York is a marginally quicker five furlongs than Haydock but the Merseyside track should still play to Winter Power’s strengths, though Bated Breath’s track record of 56.39 seconds is unlikely to be under threat.

That performance came 10 years ago in this race on Firm conditions, but with the ground currently Good to Soft with a little more rain forecast it’s looking likely they’ll be coming home a few seconds slower this time around.

Winter Power can cope with cut in the ground – she won the Cornwallis on soft – but she’s better on a sounder surface, there is no doubt.

She does go well fresh and won first-time out last year – at York – but considering this isn’t York, the ground might be slightly against her and her prohibitive odds, she’s worth swerving with any number of capable candidates waiting in the wings.

Verdict: Take Winter Power on

El Caballo - 5/2 for the Group 2 Sandy Lane Stakes, 3.10 Haydock

A midweek plunge (thanks in part to Hugh Taylor on attheraces.com) has seen Karl Burke's El Caballo assume favouritism for the Sandy Lane and this is a race the yard know how to win having taken it with Quiet Reflection in 2016.

The form of his All-Weather Championships victory at Newcastle in April got a significant boost last weekend when the runner-up, Tiber Flow, landed the Listed Carnavon Stakes at Newbury on his first turf start for William Haggas, and that looks good evidence that El Caballo could be better than an official rating of 107.

He’ll likely have to be to win this, with no less than four horses currently rated higher than him in a field packed with potential.

Go Bears Go is one of those from an official rating of 111, his impressive Ascot win on his seasonal return somewhat boosted by the performance of Ehraz, who finished a short-head behind the aforementioned Tiber Flow last weekend.

His form ties in closely with El Caballo, while there’s the 109-rated Flaming Rib, too, from the now-local Hugo Palmer yard, a horse who got back on track when returned to sprinting at Chester’s May Meeting.

Sprint king Clive Cox has two in there rated higher than El Caballo, Wings Of War (109) and Caturra (110), with the former on a retrieval mission after finishing last behind Go Bears Go at Ascot and the latter, who is ridden by Adam Kirby, seemingly in better form after finishing second in the Prix Sigy at Chantilly on April 20.

As for El Caballo, he has to prove he is just as good on turf as he is on the all-weather. His Newcastle rival Tiber Flow had the same question mark hanging over him last weekend and he answered it with a win – plenty of punters clearly expect the same result here.

He’s by Havana Gold and Burke knows all about the qualities of that stallion as he trained his best horse, Havana Grey, a speedball who won the Molecomb at two and the Grade 1 Flying Five at three.

Burke has top-level ambitions for this fellow, too, with a Commonwealth Cup bid in the offing if he comes through his Sandy Lane test on Saturday.

Verdict: The ship has sailed price-wise, so it could pay to look elsewhere

Native Trail – 4/11 for the Tattersalls Irish 2,000 Guineas

What’s the best way to play the Irish 2,000 Guineas? Native Trail looks pretty bombproof, as his odds of 4/11 suggest, with Charlie Appleby looking to complete a Guineas clean sweep following the exploits of stablemates Coroebus and Modern Games.

We know the track suits after his emphatic Vincent O’Brien National Stakes victory here last summer, while there looks to be nothing of the ilk of Coroebus or Luxembourg, the horses that finished either side of him in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket, in the Curragh field.

Indeed, Joseph O’Brien’s Buckaroo, rated 11lb his inferior, looks his most potent threat on paper, his convincing win in the Listed Tetrarch Stakes at the Curragh all the more impressive given it came off a modest pace which shouldn’t really have suited a horse well proven over 10f.

That’s not to say he’ll fill the forecast slot here, though, as he could well pay for trying to go with Native Trail and that brings Ivy League into the reckoning for 'best of the rest' honours.

Aidan O’Brien’s son of Galileo is getting to grips with racing after a concentrated learning environment on the track from the end of March to the beginning of May, when he ran the first four races of his career.

He took a while to get going in the Group 3 Amethyst Stakes at Leopardstown last time out, but he fairly rattled home once the penny had dropped and he did well to overhaul Patrick Sarsfield for second, while hinting there was plenty more to come.

Verdict: Go with Native Trail to beat Ivy League in a straight F/C

Tuesday – 5/2 for the Tattersalls Irish 1,000 Guineas

It could be Tuesday’s day on Sunday and the market support for her in the run-up to the Irish 1,000 Guineas can be justified.

Homeless Songs had been the favourite for the Curragh Classic but the form of the Dermot Weld yard (one win from 26 runners in the last two weeks and just three winners in Ireland all season) is a real cause for concern at a time when the Aidan O’Brien barn continues to thrive (15/51 29% in the same timeframe).

Tuesday is a June foal and isn’t even three yet, but her latent talent could be about to explode judging by her good run in third in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket, form that looks solid after the winner, Cachet, went so close to securing a Classic double in France last weekend.

The stiff mile at the Curragh looks a perfect next step for Tuesday, a full-sister to last year’s winner, Empress Josephine, and she could set the ball rolling for an audacious Classic double with the Cazoo Oaks on June 3 very much on her radar, too.

If Tuesday can take a significant step forward, as expected, she can outclass her Sunday rivals in a winnable renewal that looks to be lacking in stars.

As for unknown quantities, the interesting one could be William Haggas’ new recruit Purplepay, formerly trained by Cedric Rossi. Third to Angel Bleu in the Group 1 Criterium International at Saint-Cloud in October, she has to be respected hailing from such an in-form yard, but her juvenile form suggests she might need significant cut in the ground.

Verdict: Get with Tuesday at 5/2

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