It’s “Super Saturday” this week, with – six Flat turf meetings including Newmarket (the final day of the July festival), York, Ascot and Chester. Throw in the evening fixtures at Hamilton and Salisbury and we have the usual headache for racing yards of staffing issues and a dearth of jockeys. This article from the Racing Post in July 2016 sums it up perfectly…
“It is now five years since Newmarket moved the final afternoon of its July festival, thus creating a “Super Saturday” that plenty in racing felt was not all that super. There has seemed to be nigh on unanimity in the calls for Newmarket to think again. Now, however, following the decision to sell mainstream television rights to ITV, the situation is somewhat different.
Twelve months ago Newmarket’s owners, Jockey Club Racecourses, publicly made clear they were willing to return the July festival to a wholly midweek slot. This change of tone was well received by horsemen, who have encountered significant staffing problems, and a shortage of jockeys, due to the Darley July Cup moving 24 hours to a day that already had valuable afternoon cards at York, Ascot and Chester.”
Fast forward to 2025 and there’s no sign of Newmarket returning the July Cup card to a midweek slot and it looks like “Super Saturday” is here to stay.
I want to use today’s article to take a closer look at “Super Saturday”, particularly with regard to jockey booking and trainer/jockey combinations to discover whether we can make a profit by siding with some of the lesser lights…
Apprentices
When I first came up with the idea for this article, I thought that siding with apprentice jockeys might be a profitable angle, especially the leading apprentices whose claim was already down to 3lb. However, the stats show a different story…
These are the figures (excluding apprentice handicaps) by jockey claim for the last five non-COVID “Super Saturdays” (2019, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024)…
…backing non-claiming jockeys returned a profit at Betfair SP (+£134.72 after 2% commission) but riders claiming 3lb+ showed a big loss. Grouping the 3lb, 5lb and 7lb apprentices together gave the following results…
…just 19 winners from 276 bets (6.88% strike-rate) for a loss of £139.25 to a £1 level stake at SP (-50.45% on turnover).
Course
Now let’s split the record of non-claiming jockeys by course…
…we’d have made a loss at both SP and Betfair SP by backing them blind at the two biggest meetings – Newmarket and York – but made a very healthy profit at Salisbury (+£53.59 at SP, +£161.15 at Betfair SP) and a profit at Betfair SP at Ascot, Chester and Hamilton.
Salisbury is an interesting case as the six-race card kicks off with an apprentice handicap, so there are only five opportunities to ride a winner for pro-jockeys. The jockeys coming here might have turned down the chance to ride in a big race or two at Newmarket/York and it’s hardly a tempting proposition to rock up for a Class 6 race, three Class 4s and a Class 2 novice contest. Glancing through the five-day declarations two names stand out – Callum Hutchinson and Hector Crouch, especially the last-named whose name appears alongside three runners trained by Ralph Beckett. Crouch is six from 26 with his previous “Super Saturday” rides, including those as an apprentice, for a profit of £12.25 to a £1 level stake at SP (+£19.50 at Betfair SP). Hutchinson is 0-6 on “Super Saturday” but all his rides came as apprentice and three of them finished second (11-1, 11-1 and 7-2), including an 11-1 short-head second at Ascot on his only ride last year.
Other “division two” riders of note are Jack Mitchell (nine from 36, +£16.50 at SP, +£20.78 at Betfair SP), Sean Levey (+£25.07, +£44.48) and Andrew Mullen (eight from 34, +£14.28, +£24.73). Mullen is seven from 18 with his “Super Saturday” rides at Hamilton only for a profit of £25.78 to a £1 level stake at SP (+£36.11 at BSP) and at the time of writing he was jocked-up for three rides at the Scottish venue. Those 18 previous “Super Saturday” Hamilton rides came across three meetings – he was three from six in 2017, two from six in 2023 and two from six last year. He also rode two seconds (20-1 and 7-1) and two thirds (8-1 and 5-1) and those of you who play the spreads might want to consider buying his performance index.
Trainer/Jockey Combinations
William Buick has often been the star of “Super Saturday” which is no great surprise given that he has the might of the Godolphin operation behind him. Backing his “Super Saturday” rides for Charlie Appleby at Newmarket only would have found 11 winners from 25 bets for a profit of £27.25 to a £1 level stake at SP (+£35.01 at Betfair SP). Jack Mitchell and Roger Varian are four from nine (+£12.25 at SP, +£13.03 at BSP) when joining forcing on “Super Saturday”, while Sean Levey is four from 14 for Richard Hannon (+£21.07 at SP, +£38.85 at BSP).
Summary
- Be wary of backing riders claiming an allowance in non-apprentice races on “Super Saturday”
- Back William Buick’s rides for Charlie Appleby at Newmarket
- Back Andrew Mullen’s rides at Hamilton
- Consider backing Callum Hutchinson, Hector Crouch, Jack Mitchell and Sean Levey