Saturday horse racing tips: Betting expert Dave Nevison marks your card

It’s Classics weekend at Newmarket with massive hopes and intrigue in both the fillies’ and colts’ versions, and I must confess that my main hope is that they are both won by English-trained runners - though that might prove a tall order.

I am hugely disappointed by the field sizes for all the handicaps on what is normally a terrific punting weekend, but hopefully these four might make a Bank Holiday each-way yankee.

I hope this consistent type may just be able to sit on the stands-side rail and pick up coming out of the Dip in a race with so much pace – and one in which the pace-setters might begin to drift off the rail.

The Ralph Beckett stable is in really good form and this consistent handicapper deserves a win having run consistently in similar races for the last year. He has only won once, but that was a decent maiden at this course and hopefully he can double his account against some useful rivals.

The most competitive handicap of the season at Thirsk often goes to a southern raider and I feel Newmarket and Lambourn are likely to battle out the finish again this time, with Richard Hannon’s Nugget fancied to have the edge over Sir Michael Stoute’s Astro King.

Nugget was most consistent last season, looking set for a big summer on what proved his final start last term when winning nicely at Newmarket from two horses who have both improved considerably since. He won the Spring Cup in good style last time and has been raised 5lb since, but his current rating of 97 is comfortably within his range nowadays.

He is drawn in stall four, and a few lanes off the inside is ideal for me around here.

Ruth Carr’s horses have warranted close inspection in the opening stages of this season, and I will be surprised if this one doesn’t end up being a bit of a money spinner for the yard.

Bought out of Simon and Ed Crisford’s stable, Freedom Flyer has had two runs this spring and showed promise on each of them, running as though a win was coming soon when third at Thirsk last time. I expected him to be more prominent there, but he stuck on really well behind a back-to-form and very much in-form sprinter.

He should be prominent on the stands-side here, and he could just be leading on the favoured side as a few slow starters are drawn inside him. He definitely looks a bargain at just £6,000 and can get that back for connections here.

He caught the eye when not getting the best of runs last time and can hopefully win this at a price.

Ollie Pears might not be the most fashionable of trainers, but his runners are in pretty good form and he could have found a good opening for this speedster who is taking on largely out of form older horses here.

He has plenty of experience but could have improvement still to come - he was unplaced on his seasonal reappearance but he looks to have trained on. A fast five furlongs clearly suits him well and he should get a good lead into this with two pace-setters drawn just inside him.