Friday racing tips: Five horses to follow at Ascot, live on Sky Sports Racing

Sky Sports Racing’s senior form analyst Jamie Lynch has five horses to follow for Friday’s meeting at Ascot, live on Sky Sports Racing.

12.15 – BEAT THE BAT

There are five Rules newcomers as well as three hurdling debutants in the Ascot Partners ‘National Hunt’ Maiden Hurdle, the makings of a minefield for punters, but to focus on that is to underestimate the standard-setting BEAT THE BAT whose form from Chepstow would have won him the last two editions of this, albeit few before then.

One of the horses who finished in front of him in the Grade Two bumper at Aintree did so again in the novices’ hurdle at Chepstow. Masaccio is one of Alan King’s brighter prospects, and it would be either unlikely or unlucky for there to be a rival of comparable calibre in this field.

Tom Cannon said Chepstow “rode like a good race” and we know that to be true because it was six seconds quicker than the second division which was won by Minella Missile, subsequent conqueror of Captain Teague at Cheltenham.

12.50 – SUPREME GIFT

It’s understandable that he’s the outsider of four for the Racing To School Novices’ Limited Handicap Chase, because he’s not so sexy as a Nicholls/Cobden production, an unbeaten Nicky Henderson chasing debutant, nor the JPR One form, but SUPREME GIFT has plenty of plus points himself, and a 21-length defeat on his chasing debut has inflated his price, perhaps misleadingly so.

He was still in with a chance at Ludlow when a rival jumped across him at the fourth last, almost bringing him down. He was not given a hard time thereafter by Daryl Jacob, and interestingly Charlie Deutsch is aboard him at Ascot, used sparingly but significantly by Henry Daly, the pair two from four when teaming up together.

With his physique and point background, on top of his development as a hurdler last season, Supreme Gift ought to fly high as a chaser, and there’s a better than 5/1 chance that he’ll upset this particular apple cart.

1.25 – DODDIETHEGREAT

Destiny delayed and not derailed: that’s what we’re here to find out, 107 weeks after DODDIETHEGREAT was last seen on a racecourse. The oft-referenced ‘could be anything’ category is a slimmer volume than advertised but Doddiethegreat is one of the few to truly fit into it following a faultless start to his career in two bumpers and a novices’ hurdle, scarcely scratching the surface.

The novices’ hurdle came at Kempton (at odds of 1/3) and as his rider liked, by 22 lengths, but the time was faster than the 150-odd rated handicap winner on the same card (Calva D’Auge), despite still looking so raw and rugged.

Something’s got to give in his match of the day in the Give The Gift Of Ascot Membership ‘Introductory’ Hurdle against the likewise undefeated Inthewaterside, though Doddiethegreat’s Kempton numbers are way ahead of what that one did on his hurdling debut at Aintree, albeit in a restrictive race for one reason or another.

3.10 – EMIR SACREE

Tall, dark and handsome, there is a passing resemblance with one of the modern greats, Sprinter Sacre, as you’d expect from one bred along identical lines – the dam is his half-sister and both are by Network – but that’s where the similarities end, a mile apart for ability (figuratively) and requirements (literally), though EMIR SACREE is a real rhythm horse and it’s a reviving rhythm that could be ramped up here in the All Seasons Scaffolding Handicap Chase.

Rewarding rhythm, the chase course at Ascot should suit him well, and it’s worth remembering that he won on his only visit here over hurdles, while the deployment of cheekpieces for the first time in Britain (wore them once in France) suggests that this day matters, with an encouraging reappearance behind him. Generously dropped another 2lb for Chepstow, meaning he’s 6lb lower than his one hot spot last season when making a lot of the running in a better race than this at Sandown.

3.45 – SCAMALLACH LIATH

Queens Gamble, Court In The Act and Mystic Man have, like their former trainer Oliver Sherwood, enjoyed the switch to Harry Derham and reaped immediate reward, and SCAMALLACH LIATH may be the next in line in the Not Forgotten Novices’ Handicap Hurdle.

First and foremost, he’s still something of an open book having raced just four times – finishing runner-up in his two handicaps – and secondly he has been reassessed at 112 after Ascot on his seasonal sign-off which looks lenient given how The Imposter has extended his sequence into this campaign.

Derham’s is the third-best stable in Britain so far this season for strike-rate (29 per cent), and this is malleable material for him to work with, the fact that cheekpieces (on for his best run) are left off now adding weight to the thinking that there’ll be a change in Scamallach Liath, for the better.

Watch the November Racing Weekend at Ascot live on Sky Sports Racing on Friday and Saturday.