Saturday horse racing tips: Johnny Ward's three best bets

It's a busy spell of racing in Ireland, with some nice horses trained by Gordon Elliott making their seasonal debuts at Navan on Saturday. Davy Russell, who has defied many expectations to return to the saddle, rides one.

John McConnell has a strong stable of runners at Navan and he was an excellent guest on the On The Wire pocdcast this week.

Here are two strong each-way selections and one of McConnell's for the treble. Be lucky.

1.45 Navan: Apple Crumble

Cracking each-way terms here with a lot of dead wood in the race.

Perhaps the weights make-up of the Kilbeggan race entitled Apple Crumble to score but she cantered all over her rivals then and, with her trainer already talking about black type, a rating of 116 could be lenient.

Moreover, she hammered a 4-9 favourite of Willie Mullins' in a bumper in May, despite running around under pressure, and she is only getting better. On that bumper form she could be a 130+ horse hurdling.

3.20 Gowran: Navorrosse

Another race that makes plenty of each-way appeal as precious few make any sort of a case.

Navorrosse excels under Colin Keane and, drawn three, the rider has plenty of choices here. If - as I expect - he will try to make the pace, her in-running price will quickly collapse, but she is no prisoner to that. Her last-time-out second at Galway is rock-solid form.

3.30 Navan: Bardenstown Lad

Anyone listening to On The Wire who likes a bet will back this horse on the back of John McConnell's confidence.

I'm not sure what Tullybeg achieved last time when beaten eight lengths by a ten-year-old rated 111 but he has to give 4lb to the selection, who seems to reserve plenty for the end of his races and should relish this track.