Racing Line

Here is our resident expert Benny The Book with the top tips for the weekend's horse racing...

There's the best of both worlds for punters tomorrow as Sandown stages a mixed card of flat and jumps racing.

An interesting jump event is the bet365 Gold Cup (3pm) which sees Scottish Grand National winner Iris de Balme up against the Irish National runner-up Royal County Star in a top class field which also includes Racing Demon, Vodka Bleu and Bewley's Berry.

This should be a cracking renewal and finding a winner won't be easy, but one who has been talked up this week is Caribou, whose trainer Oliver Sherwood is confident the horse will go on the ground and will easily get the trip. An decent each-way hope.

That's preceded at 3.40pm by the bet365 Celebration Chase in which Monet's Garden can defy top weight although Mahogany Blaze is a big danger.

The next race, the bet365 Mile (3.55pm), sees the return of Sir Michael Stoute's Rob Roy after an 18-month stay in the States. He will need the run though and a better bet could be Major Cadeaux, last year's Greenham winner who ploughed through the mud at  the Curragh to finish second in a Group 3 recently.

Leicester is one of those courses people tend to overlook, but it has a lovely setting, is easy to get to and with good viewing.

A decent race there tomorrow is the £30k Totesport Leicestershire Stakes (3.50pm), where Peter Chappell-Hyam's Al Qasi should be favourite but he will face a tough task from Appalachian Trail and Eisteddfod, who impressed when taking a listed race at Sandown last year and is a course and distance winner here. If the odds are around 8/1 I would take them.