Four horses who will appreciate the soft ground at Warwick on Saturday

Warwick takes centre stage on Saturday with a seven-race card featuring two Grade 2s and a Grade 3. The ground, which is officially soft, heavy in places, will play an important role, and four Racing Post reporters have selected some key fancies who will relish conditions.

Achille
3.00 Warwick

The majority of Venetia Williams' runners appear to excel on deep going, and Achille is no exception.

His two best performances, which included a second to West Approach in a Grade 3 Cheltenham handicap chase in November 2019, were both achieved on very soft ground.

Saturday's racecards

He stays very well, and looks a most interesting proposition with just 10st to carry in the McCoy Contractors Civil Engineering Classic Handicap Chase (3.00) over 3m5f.

Richard Birch, tipster

3.00 Warwick

Overcoming top weight in the Classic Chase may prove to be the biggest obstacle for Ballyoptic, who should relish the testing conditions, although Nigel Twiston-Davies has booked 5lb claimer Jordan Nailor to help out in that regard.

The 11-year-old won three times on soft ground between October 2019 and February 2020 and his record on heavier ground is even better.

Friday's free racing tips: two of our experts agree on a Southwell contender

His two wins from three starts on the most testing of surfaces include a victory over Vintage Clouds in a race in which Captain Chaos, who reopposes on Saturday and is well fancied, was a long way behind.

Good ground and a huge weight was never likely to suit last time out in the Ladbrokes Trophy, but he faces much lower-rated opposition this time around.
Sam Hendry, reporter

3.00 Warwick

The marathon 3m5f McCoy Contractors Civil Engineering Classic Handicap Chase (3.00) will take some getting in the likely heavy going but one sure to enjoy the conditions is Late Romantic.

Oliver Greenall has run him on going better than soft on only one occasion since 2018 and the 11-year-old has form figures of U241P1 on heavy during his time with the Cheshire trainer.

He does come with risks attached and the potential for a bad run is always there, but if he does run badly it will not be because of the ground, which will surely be very testing with additional rain forecast on Saturday.

The step up in trip is an unknown but Late Romantic bounced back from being pulled up on his first start of the season at Carlisle in November to take a veterans' chase at Haydock last month.
Tom Ward, reporter

3.35 Warwick

While Potters Corner will have loftier targets in the spring of the jumps season, there is no doubt last year's Welsh Grand National hero revels in conditions when the mud is flying.

A memorable winner of the gruelling marathon contest in December 2019, that victory on heavy produced his career-best Racing Post Rating of 157, a whopping 13lb higher than his next best RPR of 144.

Is racing on or off? Updated weather prospects for the upcoming meetings

That rating from the Christian Williams-trained runner also came in attritional conditions when a three-length winner of the 2019 Midlands Grand National.

He also has two more victories and two runner-up efforts in his formbook when the ground is soft or slower and while the trainer has not hidden the fact that his season revolves around spring targets, he looks an interesting proposition over hurdles in what could be a potentially a profitable prep run.
Matt Rennie, reporter

Read more:

'The Riccis said to get in touch if I found a nice horse. I'm delighted I have'

Waterlogged track leads to cancellation of Kelso's jumps meeting on Sunday

Champion Bumper hope to be Willie Mullins' first British runner since travel ban

Confirmed runners and riders for the Classic Chase at Warwick on Saturday

For all our exclusive free bet offers and must-have daily promotions click the free bets button or go to racingpost.com/freebets