Dave Nevison's top tips for Saturday: Timoshenko primed to strike

It is quite a few years since I had one of my biggest ever bets on a massive horse called Hasten To Add in the Cesarewitch.

I was already on the chase, having backed him in the Northumberland Plate and watched him get nutted by Quick Ransom - trained by whippersnapper Mark Johnston - and was ultimately relieved to get some of my money back when he finished fourth as 3-1 favourite.

Hasten To Add was trained by Sir Mark Prescott and I thought he would be just about the ideal type to land this race.

However, in the subsequent 25 years he has not got that much closer to scooping the prize despite winning more than his share of staying handicaps. All that can change on Saturday afternoon.

Robert Havlin enjoys some good wins on Saturday meetings when Frankie Dettori is elsewhere and has another good chance to land a decent pot here.

He is a decent type who has only gone up 4lb for victory at Yarmouth last time. His prominent style of racing is perfect for York and he might just have a bit of upside compared to his exposed rivals.

David Barron’s horses are running well with hardly anything missing the frame and Gunmetal showed his best form for a long time when runner up at Ripon recently.

Over the past two seasons this horse has run well in just about all the major six-furlong handicaps but I can only find one run at York which came over five furlongs and unusually he raced on his own.

He has been rated higher than 100 for most handicap runs and is definitely capable of winning off a mark of 98 with a good middle draw further help.

This horse was placed with typical Prescott precision last year and despite being unbeaten in five races won his last race of that season off a rating of 74.

He has had one run only this term and won the prestigious two-and-a-half miles handicap at Glorious Goodwood Festival in decent style.

There is no way, in my view, that his solo appearances this term has been anything other to do than preserving his mark for this. It has clearly worked as he meets the horse he beat at Goodwood on the same terms.

Despite the long distance the draw does count in the Cesarewitch as horses drawn high have to do a lot of running to get a position early and I believe Timoshenko has got the perfect box in stall 12.

His ability to act on soft ground has to be taken on trust but his sire gets plenty who do go on it so I expect he will be okay.