Saturday tips: Dave Nevison's best bets at Cheltenham and Doncaster

There is plenty to look forward to on Saturday, with six graded races at Cheltenham, including a Grade One, all live on Racing TV.

There are also enough handicaps at Cheltenham and Doncaster for me to land the each-way Yankee as well!

 Best of luck, and please remember to gamble responsibly.

Es Perfecto has been beaten by the two that head the weights in this Novices' Handicap Chase on his two starts over fences so far, but has definitely been given a chance to reverse the form by the assessor, and I think that, even though he is a nine-year-old who is late being switched to fences, he is worth chancing to turn things around here. 

He is 15lb better off with Ginny’s Destiny for a ten-length defeat in November when making his chasing debut, and is 6lb better off with Blow Your Wad for a four-length defeat at Kempton where he was arguably left with too much to do, and should have finished closer to that rival. 

The stiffer finish back at Cheltenham should suit Es Perfecto better, and if he continues to improve with experience over fences, he should certainly gives his conquerors something to do here.

This season’s attempt to make Bill Baxter into a top-class staying handicapper hasn’t worked, and the experiment has, quite rightly, been abandoned with this drop back down to a distance short of three miles.

Hopefully, it is a case of nothing ventured, nothing gained, and his disappointing efforts in both the Coral Gold Cup at Newbury and the Tommy Whittle at Haydock have given the handicapper no choice but to drop him 5lb down the weights. 

Warren Greatrex’s eight-year-old is still a very likeable type, and is now only 5lb higher than when he won the Topham at Aintree last spring, his fourth win of the campaign. 

His handler has his string in excellent form, and with the trip and ground in his favour, Bill Baxter could be value to return to form at double-figure odds.

Strictlyadancer is a real stayer, and will be well suited by this race which is always a real test over this three-mile trip at Doncaster. 

He rattled up three good wins on the spin two seasons ago but has been lightly raced since then, and has not recorded another victory. 

However, his performances have largely been positive, and he has dropped back down to his last winning mark, so a return to winning form looks imminent. 

He ran really well when finishing to good effect at Kempton last time out (a track possibly not ideal for him) to finish second behind Tweed Skirt. 

Hopefully, the return of the tongue tie might have a positive effect this time, too.

Unsurprisingly, Dan Skelton looks to have placed this young chaser well, and gets Snipe in this event near to bottom weight, which might well help the seven-year-old as he is described by Timeform as a 'small gelding'.

His stature doesn’t seem to have stopped him doing well as a chaser, though, and he won at Southwell in the Autumn plus also last time out over the Mildmay fences at Aintree. 

The very capable Tristan Durrell takes over from Harry Skelton here, and takes Snipe’s weight down a further 3lb, so he looks set to go very well once again for his perpetually in-form trainer.