Saturday horse racing tips: Best bets from Dave Nevison

This looks a really tricky Saturday afternoon, with seven-runner handicaps seemingly the thing which makes my normal betting strategy impossible. I really didn’t think I would be tipping in a 16-runner 0-110 handicap chase at this stage of the season, but well done Market Rasen for getting double-figure fields for its last four handicaps on the card.

He's back in 0-85 company in Newmarket’s annual joke race for greys only. Ha – OK, it’s fair to say I’m not a massive fan, but I’ll perhaps be more enamoured if Mitrosonfire continues his improvement.

It's slightly concerning that his only defeats in his last five starts have come at the July course, but on the first of those he was drawn on the wrong side and in the second he was probably simply outclassed in the 0-105 bracket.

Mitrosonfire looks to have things in his favour here – he’s likely to lead and he might enjoy a stiff test at six furlongs. He’s only been raised 1lb for his latest success, while he has a good 3lb claimer for a yard in excellent form.

It's great to see Neil Callan back riding over here after an extended spell in Hong Kong and, if he has forgotten how it’s done around here, The 10-year-old Fire Fighting will certainly be able to show him the way around.

However he may not have the legs to see off John Gosden’s progressive three-year-old Top Brass, and especially now he is stepped up in trip. He came up against a well-handicapped rival in Epidemic last time and allowed him to get first run; he’s better than that three-length defeat but has been left on the same mark for this.

Top Brass should be able to just sit off the pace-setting Dontaskmeagain and, if he does improve for the trip, could prove himself very well-handicapped.

On the evidence of just two rides in public, it looks as though Fern O’Brien is set to be a force in female amateur riders’ events. She won on a big-priced outsider in great style on her debut up at Carlisle earlier this month and her father Fergal is unsurprisingly trusting her on a much more obvious contender here.

Valentino Dancer has been in great form over hurdles recently, running his best race last time when a close third in the big Summer Hurdle at Market Rasen. Although he finished last of five on his latest Flat effort over a year ago, that was still a decent run and he’s starting to look well-weighted.

As expected, his yard has made a cracking start to the summer jumps season.

This lightly-raced seven-year-old has run well fresh in the past - in fact, his two best runs have come after a break so this may well be the best time to catch him.

Writteninthesand did okay on his only run around this track 10 months ago (off 1lb higher) but the angle for me is the first-time tongue strap on this first run after wind surgery. That looks a positive move from Tom George, a trainer who has been among the winners recently this summer.

This is a low-grade 0-100 handicap chase, but there are one or two here who look as though they could improve. Hopefully Writteninthesand is the best of them.