Saturday tips: Four to follow at Uttoxeter including potential Cheltenham Festival contender | Racing News

At The Races expert Declan Rix is on hand to nominate four contenders worth considering on Saturday at Uttoxeter, live on Sky Sports Racing.

MARTA DES MOTTES

2:10 – Moorland Racing Novices’ Handicap Chase (1m7f214y)

When last seen 64 days ago, MARTA DES MOTTES put on a fair show of jumping at Cheltenham, only to be cruelly run down in the closing stages by the game Dame Du Soir. Her run previous, the Tom Symonds inmate finished second to the highly progressive Saint Segal. In short, the Montmartre mare’s form looks solid.

The drop back in trip here isn’t ideal, but she is a forward-going front-runner who jumps well and will hopefully have plenty use made of her again by Ben Poste, who gave her a smashing ride from the front last time out.

Two previous runs here at Uttoxeter were solid, if unspectacular, but the six-year-old looks to have progressed since those, and has certainly taken to fences well. Uttoxeter has been a happy hunting ground for trainer Tom Symonds and jockey Poste; hopefully that continues here.

MISTER COFFEY

2.50 – deliveringyournetzero.com Handicap Chase (3m)

Should you be lucky enough to be at Uttoxeter on Saturday, make sure to inspect the strapping MISTER COFFEY pre-race. The giant son of Authorized is easy on the eye, and easy to fancy on Saturday, especially with top Irish amateur Derek O’Connor an eye-catching jockey booking, connections no doubt eyeing up next month’s Cheltenham Festival.

Second in last year’s Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir when maybe not seeing out the trip strongly late, having been badly hampered early, on what was rain-affected ground, the eight-year-old looks to have returned as good as ever this season, based on his sound second at Chepstow 46 days ago.

There, Mister Coffey jumped soundly, only going down to a progressive horse of Jamie Snowden’s, Super Survivor. Given his stature, Nicky Henderson’s inmate will surely have improved for that and can hopefully take this ahead of a National Hunt Chase bid.

ILANZ

3.20 – Huntsman Celebrating Roger Martin’s 75th Birthday Handicap Hurdle (2m3f207y)

The combination of getting pace to run at and a sound surface will hopefully play into the hands of ILANZ, in a race maybe lacking in in-form horses.

The son of Rail Link was clobbered with a 12lb rise when winning at Market Rasen and Taunton, respectively, within a week in December, the Taunton success coming by 16 lengths under Mitchell Bastyan.

Seven-pound claimer Bradley Harris, who has ridden winners both on the flat and over jumps, replaces Bastyan, but is operating at a 22 per cent strike-rate this National Hunt campaign and eases the burden of his mount.

ELLEON

3.55 – Carly Newman Birthday Celebration Handicap Chase (3m)

A trappy contest with three of the 10 declared runners sporting first-time headgear, but if turned out quickly by trainer Sam England, ELLEON can hopefully win his first race over fences, after some close near-misses at Sedgefield and Doncaster.

In some ways, it’s last chance saloon for the son of Martaline who has gone down a short-head and half-a-length in his last pair of starts, one of those two days ago at Doncaster. Elleon was beaten by the progressive Onestepatatime two starts back, a run that puts him bang in the mix here.

He may be more at home on the likely sound surface than most so I’m hoping the eight-year-old can break his duck over fences as he is clearly in-form currently.