The Weekend Starts Here: why Fridays need to be a bigger part of your racing life - plus eyecatchers at Ascot and Southwell

Racing on Fridays, especially what is to come over the next few weeks, will tell you much the same thing as a journey on the M6. People love to start their weekend a bit early.

A £175,000 Friday card at Ascot will preface Shishkin's reappearance on Saturday. Newbury has one of the most indicative Friday cards of the whole season next week, as a precursor to the Coral Gold Cup. Then the day before the Tingle Creek, Sandown will put on a couple of Grade 2s.

We obsess about Saturday horses, mostly on account of television coverage. It is Fridays on which you will most often see the Saturday horses of the very near future.

The Weekend Starts Here:

• 2.00 Ascot: Can Venetia Williams strike again with the Ricci-owned Fire Dancer on his first start after wind surgery? 
• Willie Mullins talking horse with 'huge ability' makes highly anticipated chase debut at Fairyhouse 
• Chris Cook's three things to look out for on Friday 

Look at the opener at Ascot (12.15). Ostensibly, it's a shoulder race on a shoulder card. Yet its last ten winners include the sadly unrealised Beat That, as well as future top handicap winners Kildisart and Kimberlite Candy, and for my money a yet-to-come big handicap winner in Doctor Ken.

Even a quick glance at the winners elsewhere on the card in the same timeframe would flag up future Tolworth winners, Becher winners, Supreme favourites, Cesarewitch winners. Look far enough down and you might find a Nobel Prize in there.

For betting purposes, chases hold most of my attention. There are a couple of chasers on this card I would be especially interested in: Your Darling in the 2.00 and Manothepeople in the 3.10.

But this Ascot card is one on which I always make sure to watch the hurdles races too. You are bound to spot hot prospects for the near, middle and distant future if you watch closely enough. And that goes for more than just this Friday's racing, so it could pay to make a habit of celebrating Fridays this winter. You surely won't need much excuse.
Keith Melrose, betting editor

Southwell returns after major flooding: who are the eyecatchers on the card?

Southwell racecourse at the height of the floodCredit: Arena Racing Company

Daniel and Claire Kubler captured one of this year's most valuable handicaps with an import from another yard and their sole representative catches the eye as racing returns to Southwell on Friday.

Extensive flood damage caused by Storm Babet on October 21 forced the course to transfer the fixtures it had scheduled over the past month, but it reopens for owners, trainers and annual members on Friday, when the mile handicap (6.15) could be a launchpad to better things for Al Rufaa.

He will run in the same red-and-white-striped silks as Astro King, who strode to victory in the Cambridgeshire in September and last week finished sixth in the lucrative Bahrain International Trophy, having been purchased out of Sir Michael Stoute's yard.

Al Rufaa is in excellent form, having won in dominant fashion on his second start for the yard at Wolverhampton a week ago.

"We were really pleased with him there," Daniel Kubler said of the 89-rated gelding, who has had spells with John and Thady Gosden and Charlie Fellowes. "We'd just been trying to get him to settle as he'd lost his way a little bit before he came to us, so it was great to see him get his head in front.

"Hopefully he can continue to progress and get to somewhere near his best. By running here he qualifies for the All Weather Championships, so that could be an option depending on how he runs, and his data shows he could stay ten furlongs in due course.

"As much the all-weather is good and fun, if we can go for some nice meetings on the turf next summer that might be more of an aim. We'll have a think afterwards on whether we keep going or rest him."

On the lack of access to the public, Kubler added: "It's great to have the course back, but the fact they're not inviting the public in is very disappointing and it wants to be a very short-term situation."

Spotlight comment

Al Rufaa: Won for the hood first going on for John Gosden and ended a long losing run back in the aid last time (second start for this yard); will be 2lb higher than under the penalty from tomorrow and holds leading claims now back in form.

Al Rufaa18:15 Southwell (A.W)

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Jky: Dylan Hogan Tnr: Daniel & Claire Kubler

Julie Camacho has two runners at Southwell's first meeting since the flood and her husband and assistant Steve Brown said: "It's nice to have the option again. Southwell and Newcastle are two tracks we frequent and everything has been heading north in the last few weeks.

"Some horses like going round a bend, it suits them more, whereas the action at Newcastle is on the straight track.

"Flash The Dash [7.15] showed a return to form after a wind operation last time. He ran well and just got a touch tired in the last 50 yards. We're keen to see him again and we'd hope to see better from Brummell [6.45] first time in a handicap."

Spotlight comments

Brummell: Half-brother to three winners who's been gelded since last seen six weeks ago; hasn't shown enough to be considered from the outside stall unless the market speaks firmly his way.

Brummell18:45 Southwell (A.W)

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Jky: Ryan Sexton (3lb)Tnr: Julie Camacho

Flash The Dash: Losing run up to 16, though after having undergone wind surgery he bounced back to form when beaten just over a length into third of ten at Newcastle (6f, Tapeta) this month; races off the same mark and the runner-up has won since, but the draw hasn't been kind.

Flash The Dash19:15 Southwell (A.W)

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Jky: Ryan Sexton (3lb)Tnr: Julie Camacho

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