Horse Racing Tips: Tanya Stevenson's 3 Bets For Newcastle And Newbury On Saturday

Tanya Stevenson's Selections For Newcastle & Newbury On Saturday

• The Panel Selection 1: 13:03 Newcastle - Zanndabad - 10/3 With William Hill
• The Panel Selection 2: 13:54 Newbury - Impose Toi (NAP) - 7/2 With Ladbrokes
• The Panel Selection 3: 15.00 Newbury - Grandero Bello - 25/1 With Ladbrokes

Tanya Stevenson Panel Tip 1: Newcastle 13:03 - Zanndabad 

I'm going up to Newcastle, no not for the Fighting Fifth where I really fancy Lump Sum each-way, as I've sat back from all the hype of Sir Gino v Mystical Power. Instead I'm trying to steal a place with Lump Sum.  

Instead, it is worth going through all the races at all the venues as early as possible as there will be some real gems to look back on or races not to miss. 

Newcastle’s 1.03pm is a belter as it has Skyjack Hijack who has done wonders having racked up a winning sequence of five to date, brilliantly handled by Jennie Candlish. 

Yet after all that I'm focusing on Zanndabad, who has a fair rating on the flat and has shown sufficient ability over hurdles. He was an unlucky third in the Chester Cup and then he was good enough to be sixth at Royal Ascot in the Ascot Stakes.  

He was last seen finishing sixth in the Irish Cesarewitch behind The Euphrates, with horses such as Nurburgring, Comfort Zone and Alphonse Le Grande in close proximity and he was carrying more weight than those three! Remember two of those are graded hurdle winners. 

His last two hurdle runs saw him second in the Scottish County Hurdle and then he followed it up with a second in a maiden hurdle at Ascot.  

Yes, that is the only worry as he is still a maiden over hurdles after six attempts. But trainer Tony Martin may have found him the ideal opening as his flat ability will hopefully thrive at the pace that Skyjack Highjack will set and he can creep into the race slowly to be right there approaching the last.

Tanya Stevenson Panel Tip 2: Newbury 13:54 - Impose Toi (NAP)

Impose Toi runs in the 1:54 at Newbury and has an obvious chance, despite this being his seasonal debut.

He was a short-priced favourite for the Lanzarote in January and got a beautiful run through on the inside rail at the final bend. Although produced at the right time, he climbed the last two hurdles rather than jumping them fluently.

He had no answer to Jay Jay Reilly and Nemean Lion, the latter of whom went on to win the Grade 2 Kingwell Hurdle.

Prior to that, he travelled so much better into his race at Cheltenham, where he was able to sit in the slipstream of Caithness going into the last hurdle before sprinting across the line. That performance highlighted his need for a consistently quick tempo from the start.

His best run to date was at Ascot in December, where he was an unheralded 11/1.

He flattened the last two hurdles which zapped a fair bit of energy from him and he didn’t have enough in reserve to rally to pick up Luccia. Altobelli was back in third.

To me he, needs to sharpen up his hurdling skills and needs a better race where they will go a really fast pace.  

I think the two and a half miles is fine providing the hurdling is good as he leaves his races behind when clouting them.  

He is a class act who has won five times and never finished out of the first three.

Tanya Stevenson Panel Tip 3: Newbury 15:00 - Grandero Bello 

I was torn for my final selection between the fairytale of Conor O’Farrell riding for David Pipe in the Rehearsal Chase on Neon Moon, after Conor had been off the course for such a long time due to injury.

Conor rode Junior to victory in that very race for David in 2012. I also considered picking one out in the tricky Coral Gold Cup. I say "tricky" as it doesn’t have the quality we remember, but it is certainly competitive.

I thought about Galia Des Liteaux, whom I backed ante-post for the Grand National. After a poor run at Exeter, where I sensed she sulked, she picked herself up and finished eighth in the Grand National itself, even after stumbling early in the race.

If she were to get into a front-running flow, she would be very dangerous. However, I can’t get the last run of Grandero Bello out of my head at Galway in October.

The ground was soft, and he was 22/1. It was only his eighth race over the bigger obstacles and his 11th overall, yet he won with such panache and comfort that, if you were watching for the first time, you’d think he was running off bottom weight.

Eddie Harty, under his own licence, has only had one previous Newbury runner, and that was Princeton Plains in the Betfair Hurdle.

Under the joint licence with Patrick, this will be only their second British runner, following Evenings Empire, who finished fifth at Cheltenham in April.

The last time Grandero Bello ran over as far as three miles, he was second in a Grade 3 Chase to Thedevilscoachman at Limerick, finishing only two lengths behind.

I’m hoping that, for this one, the farther, the better.