Kempton Horse Racing Tips for Saturday

Racing Post tipster Keith Melrose returns to provide his best bets for Saturday’s big card at Kempton, which includes the last chance for Cheltenham hopefuls to book their ticket to next month's festival.

Saturday’s Kempton Horse Racing Betting Tips and Odds

13:50 Kempton - Imperial Saint @ 9/4
15:35 Kempton - Golden Son @ 8/1
16:10 Kempton - Keep Running @ 4/1

13:50 Kempton - Imperial Saint @ 9/4

The Pendil is a race that has been farmed down the years by Paul Nicholls and that is among the reasons why his Rubaud is popular this year. This horse also had a fine record at Kempton over hurdles and seemed to enhance his reputation when second to L'Eau Du Sud at Warwick two weeks ago.

There are a lot of assumptions in that form, though, and on balance Imperial Saint represents a better bet today. His chase form is much more solid.

Imperial Saint has five runs over fences to his name, all of them in handicaps which tend to be more reliable formlines than small-field novices. He has won three times at Aintree, which like Kempton is flat and a stiff test of jumping. The major difference is that they go in different directions.

Last time, Imperial Saint was pitched into a Premier handicap at Cheltenham on festival trials day. There he ran with real credit to finish third off a mark of 144, shaping like the return to a flatter, more speed-favouring track would suit.

He gets that here and, for all the hints in his Warwick run, you could not say that Rubaud would have done last time what Imperial Saint did. That is what makes the latter the bet.

15:35 Kempton - Golden Son @ 8/1

A lot of attention has rightly focused on the three novices at the head of the betting in the race known most famously as the Racing Post Chase. Hyland, Lowry's Bar and Beachcomber are all unexposed and race prominently, important ingredients in races like this.

However, the difference between them and Golden Son is less than the market is letting on and he should be backed as an each-way alternative. 

On this card last year, Golden Son won a 2m4½f handicap chase, beating Heltenham who won a Premier handicap at Newbury a week later. His season rather fizzled out after that, but after a run to get fit in November he ran with credit here around Christmas, shaping as though the 3m trip would be within his reach another day.

Golden Son is actually lower in the weights now than 12 months ago and has seemingly been trained for this day. Harry Cobden chooses to ride him over the attractively treated Tahmuras and that should be taken as a statement of how much of his season is about this race. 

16:10 Kempton - Keep Running @ 4/1

Ideal Des Bordes and Keep Running stand out in this race. The form of the former's second here over 3m a couple of weeks back is hard to overplay, as he came clear with another sharp improver.

You do feel though that if you were to swap the trainers you would swap the prices. Ideal Des Bordes is trained by Nicky Henderson, whereas Keep Running has been improving quickly of late for Warren Greatrex.

He has been ridden with dash the last twice, not seeing a rival at either Ludlow or Ffos Las. At the latter track, he jumped right (which is unlikely to be an issue at Kempton) but still put down a good field of well-handicapped sorts. He has had six weeks to recover and should be plenty fresh enough to do himself justice here.

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This article was written by a partner sports writer via Spotlight Sports Group. All odds displayed on this page were correct at the time of writing and are subject to withdrawal or change at any time.