Rrrrrolling our R's with Rougemont & Red Jazz

Saturday sees an atypical day's racing with Listed or higher grade races at four separate tracks & Ascot having arguably the least interesting of the cards & the all-weather at Lingfield having some crackers. We've looked through the cards to find some of the best bets in the day's top races.

(Red Jazz can show his class in Haydock's 4.15)

In the 4.15 at Haydock we like the chances of the highly tried & high class Red Jazz as Charlie Hills charge looks to repel the challenge of last year's winner Beacon Lodge & the improving Firebeam. Red Jazz really did competed at a high level in 2011 & rightly so after an impressive Group 2 victory in October 2010 over this 7 furlong distance in similar conditions at Newmarket. Red Jazz has competed in the Lockinge & twice finished 3rd in the Godolphin Mile at Meydan against Godolphin horses that we really like in Skysurfers & this year's exciting winner African Story, although not winning since 2010 that form is hot for this contest & he had Beacon Lodge in behind on one occasion last year. Beacon Lodge has switched to Dandy Nicholls stable after seeing success with Clive Cox & took this easily enough last year, underfoot conditions seem to not bother this one too much but a disappointing reappearance when 2nd favourite in a race at the Curragh needs to be overcome. Firebeam threw in some visually impressive performances at the end of last year but they were in much lower grade races than this, the positive is that he's unexposed & improving but we think he'll have to go some to match Red Jazz off of level weights, this is the one to be on at 2/1.

(Rougemont (right) lines up in the Lingfield Derby Trial)

In Lingfield's Derby Trial at 3.10 we can't believe that Richard Hannon's Rougemont isn't favourite as he's got the form in the book already having beaten subsequent Chester Vase winner Mickdaam at Newmarket in April. Rougemont looks a proper middle distance colt & will appreciate stepping up a further 2 furlongs to a mile & a half & the loss to the impressive Imperial Monarch at Sandown in desperate ground can be discounted, the only worry for us is that the heavy ground there could have taken a lot out of him but Ryan Moore didn't ask too much once the horse started to tire. John Gosden's Shantaram has only raced twice so could improve but finished behind Model Pupil last time & that one finished behind Mickdaam at Chester so Rougemont holds that one on a line of form. Main Sequence is unbeaten with three wins but a maiden, nursery & handicap aren't that impressive & Ted Durcan gave the colt a very nice ride on its seasonable debut at Newmarket, that was run on the same day & at the same distance that Rougemont won but was nearly 3 seconds slower. You won't go far wrong backing Rougemont at 9/2, this one has the form whilst the others have potential, we'd rather go with what we've already seen rather than what may come in the future.

Selections:
Lingfield 3.10 - Rougemont to win at 9/2
Haydock 4.15 - Red Jazz to win at 2/1