Dave Nevison: my top tips for Newmarket and York on Saturday

This is one of the betting weekends of the season and as usual I will be having my each-way Yankee in the hope of a massive return.

However, if I have nothing running on to my last selection of the afternoon, I will be getting the bat out and having a swing at one in the sprint handicap that ends the York card.

My maximum bets are a fraction of what they were 20 years ago but I will certainly get a holiday if it wins!

Has only run one bad race at York, when he did far too much too early. He’s run many of his best races at this track and has a solid chance of winning one here.

I backed him in this corresponding event last season, when he finished a very good second after twice being denied a clear run.

He was backed into favouritism on that occasion after a good previous run and hit form again last time out at Newmarket, so looks poised to go very well again off the same mark as last year.

Andrea Atzeni rides for the first time and trainer Mark Walford is in pretty good form so with a pace guaranteed hopefully he will get a smooth run through this year.

There is nothing between the two highly progressive three-year-olds at the front of the market for the Bunbury Cup, a handicap where five of the past six winners have been priced at 7-1 or less. I can see them coming home alongside each other.

Having rewatched their latest runs, I felt that Montassib might be even better up to a mile whereas Samburu flattened out over 7f after tanking through the Jersey Stakes.

In terms of standard times, the 7f course at Newmarket is significantly easier than Ascot and that, as much as anything, swings me in his favour. Samburu has only run over this trip but his latest effort shows that he needs to be held up longer.

That is Kieran O’Neill’s job on Saturday, and he has won on him before.

Intellogent was a Group One winner over a mile as a three-year-old in France and more recently was placed in a Group Two over this trip.

His form declined over the course of last year but a move to Newmarket and Jane Chapple-Hyam looks to have got him back on track.

Group One races are now likely to be out of reach but he ran a blinder in the Royal Hunt Cup last time, seemingly having been brought along steadily in two quiet runs for the yard.

He stayed on really well on similar ground, so it is unlikely he will have any issue with another big handicap. Intellogent gets this trip and has solid claims here and his French form suggests that he might be very well in off the same mark as in the Hunt Cup.

Dancinginthewoods is my strongest bet of this week in a race where so very few can be expected to do anything different to what they have been doing recently.

By contrast, Dancingonthewoods has several factors that may bring about the necessary improvement to score. Firstly, he has moved stables and hopefully that will be a positive, with Amy Murphy in good form.

A tongue-strap has been added to his array of headgear plus he has been significantly dropped in class in this 0-80 grade. His last win came in a 0-95 handicap and he is running off a mark 1lb below that win here.

With better luck in running, he could well have won a 0-100 handicap on his reappearance at Newmarket. He has continued to be dogged by bad luck in two subsequent runs and, while trouble in running is an occupational hazard for a sprint handicapper, the odds usually offer some compensation and the signs are good here with a strongly-run race on the cards. He has won on good to firm ground in the past.