Newmarket Horse Racing Tips for Saturday: Apollo One is the value

Saturday's card at Newmarket is the big one, featuring the season's first Classic in the 2000 Guineas. Can outstanding juvenile City Of Troy take his first steps towards an immortal triple crown?

Here are the latest horse racing betting tips for Saturday's card at Newmarket from the Racing Post's Keith Melrose:

Saturday's Newmarket Horse Racing Betting Tips and Odds

1:45 – Apollo One @ 10/1
2:55 – Mitbaahy @ 3/1
3:35 – Ghostwriter @ 16/1

1:45 – Apollo One @ 10/1

bet365 are offering an additional place on this cavalry charge sprint handicap, so there are five places on offer instead of four. That makes a consistent sprint handicapper like Apollo One an especially appealing bet.

This horse built up an impressive record in major sprint handicaps last season. He started off with a third-placed finish in this race, then was second in the Wokingham at Royal Ascot.

Most notably given the likely soft ground today, he was second to Aberama Gold in the Stewards' Cup on sodden ground before stepping up to Listed company and performing with credit in the Beverley Bullet.

Conditions will pose no problem for Apollo One. His handicap mark is far from prohibitive, too. He was running off this very mark when second in the Stewards' Cup, in among horses that revel in the mud when he just copes with it. He is the obvious each-way bet in a tricky sprint handicap.

2:55 – Mitbaahy @ 3/1

Mitbaahy was always more of a Charlie Hills horse than a Roger Varian one. He worked his way up the ranks with Varian, but Hills is the man with older sprinters who are struggling to make the jump to Group 1 company, so the switch to his Lambourn yard to start this season seems a logical one.

There were positive signs right off the bat on Mitbaahy's stable debut in the Abernant Stakes at this track two weeks ago. That was over a stiff six furlongs, when on previous form Mitbaahy had looked more of a stiff five/easy six sort of sprinter.

He also proved he can handle soft ground when putting up a career-best effort on his last run for Varian at Chester last August. 

With favourite Beautiful Diamond having loads of potential, but leaving more than enough room for doubt with her lack of race fitness and need to step up in form terms against older horses, Mitbaahy makes much more sense as a bet.

3:35 – Ghostwriter @ 16/1

There is no doubt that City Of Troy is the likeliest winner of the 2000 Guineas. He was unbeaten last year, won convincingly on the Rowley Mile on his final start as a two-year-old and has proved himself on soft ground.

Ghostwriter can claim two out of the same three positives, and you would be more confident in saying that he will improve as a three-year-old. 

He has loads of size, to the point that it was notable he could show as much as he did at two, and it makes the positive noises made by trainer Clive Cox much easier to take at face value.

Ghostwriter was last seen winning the Group 2 Royal Lodge Stakes here in September. You could not miss him, for not only did he tower over his rivals, he travelled like thunder, coming off the bridle last by a long way and running out a cosy winner who could have been more emphatic had there been need.

These softer conditions are an unknown, but even so an each-way bet on Ghostwriter looks far more inviting than a straight win on the prohibitively priced City Of Troy, who does need to prove that he at least retains his ability from last season.

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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.