Coral Racing Ambassador, Joe Tizzard, previews his three runners on Saturday, including the well fancied The Changing Man in the Ascot Gold Cup Handicap Chase (15:45).

It’s a big weekend for us, with some of our bigger names in action and at Ascot we have what the betting says are two major chances in their feature races, so let’s hope the bookmakers are right.

14:05 Ascot – Western General

Our first runner, Western General, managed to win three races last season, but I felt the handicapper was hard on him as they were only little races he was winning. However, we are where we are with his mark of 137, so we’ll have a go here, find out how good he is, and if this is too deep he’ll at least get dropped a few pounds I hope.

15:10 Ascot – Alexei

Alexei ran a cracker to finish second in the Welsh Champion Hurdle, and as mine have generally needed a run, he should come on plenty for that Chepstow effort. He is a horse we like a lot, he’ll enjoy the decent ground and I’m really looking forward to this. Off a mark of 127 I hope he can go close.

15:45 Ascot – The Changing Man

The Changing Man loves Ascot and we’ve done plenty with him at home, so I’m happy with how fit he is for his return. He was so consistent last season and I don’t think we’ve kept anything from the handicapper, but this is a £100,000 race, so he’ll be doing his best in what we hope is a prep for the Coral Gold Cup.

Joe Tizzard, Coral Racing Ambassador