Five Irish raiders arrive in the UK on Saturday We have a fair amount of racing taking place across Britain this weekend, with a grand total of five meetings taking place. Kelso, Doncaster and Newbury host the National Hunt action, while the all-weather fixtures come from Lingfield and Southwell. There are five Irish raiders coming over to Britain on the day and they are spread across four different courses. One of the feature races of the day is the £120,000 Morebattle Hurdle at Kelso and William Durkin sends an unexposed runner over. Here we assess the chances of all six Irish-trained runners and look out for an Emmet Mullins runner in Doncaster's opening race. Bythesametoken - Kelso 1.10 @ 7/1 Ross O'Sullivan's BYTHESAMETOKEN won a competitive race at Listowel in good style back in September, but the handicapper responded firmly to that success. Returning from a break at Haydock earlier this month, he ran well enough over a longer trip and eventually finished third. You would imagine he can step forward from that effort and perhaps the return to a shorter trip can also help. Barra Rua - Doncaster 1.25 @ SP Keep an eye on the betting for this race, because it's usually quite telling when an Emmet Mullins-trained runner is strong in the betting. BARRA RUA won a mares' maiden hurdle at Tramore in good style back in November, but was a bit out of her depth in a Grade 2 at Limerick on Boxing Day. She was also well beaten on handicap debut at Leopardstown last time out but this race is less competitive and victory can't be ruled out. Star Strewn - Lingfield 2.35 @ SP STAR STREWN has only had three starts thus far and she showed promise in her first couple of runs at Dundalk in the Autumn. She returned from a short break at the same track earlier this month and managed to get off the mark, producing a very smart performance. It remains to be seen if she's up to competing at Listed level, but further progress is surely on the cards, although the filly does need to take a big step forward. Laafi - Kelso 2.55 @ SP William Durkan hasn't had a runner at Kelso before but that is set to change on Saturday as he sends LAAFI over for the feature Morebattle Hurdle. This lightly raced sort has only had four starts over hurdles so far and he won a Limerick maiden back in December 2024. He has run in two very warm handicaps this season and could probably do with a bit of help from the handicapper. That being said, they would have been good learning experiences. Al Kalila - Kelso 5.10 @ SP Stuart Crawford often targets tracks like Kelso and he has managed to book the services of Sean Bowen for AL KALILA in the track's closing race. The son of Soldier Of Fortune was a comfortable winner of an Ayr maiden hurdle last term and wasn't disgraced when third here in December, off an 8lb higher mark. A reproduction of that form would surely give the seven-year-old every chance here.
