Horse racing tips: Friday trio from Haydock

James Evans’ old timer has been beaten three times off this mark recently, but he's shown on two of those occasions that he's well capable of winning and he is now actually 4lb lower than his last win in a handicap. 

A decent pace will help him Croeso Cymraeg as he always comes late into a race, and last time was beaten just 1 ¼ lengths into second at Beverley. 

He is almost always ridden by a claiming jockey and has a couple of decent efforts under Joe Leavy already this season, but he definitely looks in better form now and with a decent pace looking likely Croeso Cymraeg has good prospects here. 

Bayraat has his ideal circumstances and, unless he runs himself into trouble - which is not impossible! - he looks set to come good for the season. 

Tom Tate’s sprinter has run himself into form this season with good efforts on his last two starts in competitive York handicaps. Last time out he ran on well into third, beaten just three-quarters of a length after not enjoying the best of runs. 

Almost half of this field are habitual front-runners so it seems highly likely that Bayraat will get the fast pace he needs to show his best form, while a middle draw should mean that he has plenty of options when he starts to weave his way through this field. 

The eight-year-old was beaten just two heads when third in this race last year and, on slower ground that shouldn’t be a problem for him this time around, he may get more time to pick off weakening rivals. 

David Egan rates a strong booking at this weight and I fancy Bayraat strongly. 

This three-year-old was sold quite cheaply out of the Sir Mark Prescott yard after not managing to win for the Newmarket trainer but, after just six weeks off the track, managed to win first time up for his new connections. 

Knight Templar needed every bit of the 12 furlongs to get up to win by a short head at Ffos las and it definitely looks like he will find these extra two furlongs well within his stamina range. The second from that race went in next time, so even though it was just a 0-60 contest the form looks reasonably strong. 

The ground is the same as last time and Tom Marquand on board certainly won’t harm his chances of following up off just a 4lbs higher mark.