Doncaster Saturday Jumps Preview

Doncaster hosts one of the stand out cards of racing on Saturday and in the first race of the day we fancy the big priced Ferrobin to run a cracker.

The Dan Skelton trained six year old has slightly fell off the boil of late which is why he is such an attractive price but if getting back to his form from the start of the season he has a big chance.

On his seasonal bow in September he was a smart second at Warwick in a similar event and backed that up with another second at Stratford.

those runs were both off a mark of 133 and 132 and on Saturday he runs off a mark off 117 which makes for very interesting reading off such a low mark.

One of the feature races on the card is the Grade Two Novices Chase over two miles and although only four runners go to post it looks a very hot event.

We are siding with the Nigel Twiston-Davies trained Al Dancer who it really is last chance saloon for when it comes to backing this horse over fences.

Over hurdles the grey seven year old was a star winning all of his first four starts over timber and then unfortunately running below par at the Cheltenham festival.

Over fences he made a winning start in a poor contest and since being put into better races has struggled but if recapturing the runs of his hurdle days he enters calculations here.

Agamemmon goes for us in the next contest which sees the Class 4 Handicap Chase over three miles and this Henry Oliver trained runner looks a nice gelding.

Brian Hughes gets the leg up on the eight year old which is always a positive and the horse enters this contest off the back of comfortable win at Sedgefield last time out.

He is dropping back two furlongs which could be a positive already proving his staying credentials and should be able to dominate towards the end of the contest.

The second big contest of the day at Doncaster is The Albert Bartlett River Don Novices' Hurdle Race and in this Grade Two event we are very keen on Fergal O'Brien's Champagne Well.

The seven year old has ran to a superb standard this season in very similar events not finishing outside the top two on all three of his start.

On his seasonal bow he got off the mark in nice style seeing off some talented horses and since then at Cheltenham again on two occasions he has finished second.

He was three length runner up to the superb Thyme Hill who has since gone on to win a Grade One and then last time out stepped up to Three miles to finish in the same place.

Should have a big say on this contest.

One of our biggest fancies of the day on Saturday comes in the Yorkshire Rose Mares' Hurdle Race and Floressa for trainer Nicky Henderson looks a classy mare.

The five year old this season has done very little wrong winning on her debut at Worcester before finishing a very narrow second to Silver Forever.

She then went on to reverse the form the next time the two met at Newbury and Paul Nicholls' horse has since gone on to frank that form making Floressa one to be respected in this field.

The Sky Bet Handicap Steeple Chase sees a decent sized field go to post and with that in mind we have two selections at nice prices for the Listed event.

With both horses at a similar price the first horse we want to discuss is Ravehill Road for the inform trainer Sue Smith who has had six winners from just 20 runners this year.

This nine year old is a very interesting contender having ran over 2m 5f last time out and getting off the mark for the season with the extended trip bringing the best out of him and this even longer distance could do the same.

The other selection from us is a more well known horse with Nicky Henderson's Ok Corral who has been very below par on both his runs this season but now at a big price, winning last time out at Listed Level and loving soft ground he has to be in the frame.

The final runner of the afternoon for us is the Nicky Richards trained six year old who looks very unlucky to not be favourite for this contest off the back of both her runs this season.

She started her career off at Kelso at the back end of last season finishing a decent third in a Class 3 bumper and when returning for her seasonal bow in December she managed to get off the mark in good style.

Nicky Richards is a shrewd trainer with his bumper horses and with Brian Hughes taking the reigns it adds that bit extra to the event with him chasing the jockey's title.