Al Shaqab Lockinge Day 2023: Godolphin Star on Show at Newbury

Horse racing fans are set for a stellar Saturday, with the prestigious Al Shaqab Lockinge Day scheduled to take place at Newbury Racecourse.

The Group 1 Lockinge Stakes is the standout race on the card, with a high-class field of talented milers set to do battle at 3.35 pm.

All of the top horse racing betting sites have published odds on the big races at Newbury, so let’s take a closer look at what’s on the agenda.

Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Yibir returns to action in the Al Rayyan Stakes and is well-fancied to kick off his season with a victory.

Several new betting sites rate him as a 5/4 shot to emerge victorious and it will take a good horse to lower his colours this weekend.

Yibir won several top-class races during 2021, before showing plenty of smart form as a four-year-old including a victory in the Princess of Wales’s Stakes at Newmarket.

He suffered a setback after the race, but has been catching the eye on the gallops and looks a good bet to come out on top at Newbury.

Top Irish trainer Aidan O’Brien has an intriguing contender in the London Gold Cup Heritage Handicap, with Bertinelli set to tackle the ten-furlong contest.

The horse was due to run in the recent Lingfield Derby Trial, but has been rerouted to Newbury after that race was switched onto the all-weather track.

Bertinelli finished second behind Alder at Cork on his seasonal reappearance and that horse has since finished runner-up in the Dee Stakes at Chester.

While there are plenty of other unexposed horses in the line-up, O’Brien’s charge looks a decent value each-way bet under jockey Ryan Moore.

Jockey Frankie Dettori has won several Group races in recent weeks and will bid to add another one in the Lockinge Stakes at Newbury.

Last year’s Sun Chariot Stakes runner-up Laurel kicked off this season with a stylish win at Kempton Park and is priced at odds of 7/2 (Rhino Bet) to follow up in the Lockinge.

Dettori has yet to partner the Juddmonte filly on the track, but got himself acquainted with her during a stylish gallop at Newmarket this week.

The veteran jockey can equal Lester Piggott’s record six wins in the Lockinge this weekend, and plenty of punters will be using the latest betting offers to back him to achieve the feat