THE latest all-weather meeting on the polytrack at Chelmsford takes place this weekend with an action-packed eight-race card in Essex. 

Racing gets underway at 4.55pm with a novice stakes in class five before the card comes to a close at 8.30pm under the floodlights with a class six handicap for three-year-old’s. 

Read below to discover the latest tips and a full card preview of Chelmsford’s meeting on Saturday courtesy of Sporting Life.

The opening contest on Saturday sees a field of nine head to the stalls for the six furlong novice stakes in class five with the two-year-old’s taking centre stage. Storm Free looks the one to beat for trainer James Tate, finishing second of nine in a Kempton novice on all-weather debut five weeks ago and should be ripe for improvement heading to Chelmsford. Course and distance winner Pink Diesel rates the main threat, fifth in a £100,000 fillies event on the turf at Goodwood last time out. 

Race two on the Chelmsford card is a class six handicap over six furlongs, with 12 horses taking on the trip at 5.25. Preference here heads the way of Shamardia, who was on an upward trajectory before having excuses when finishing last at Wolverhampton last time out but is taken to get back to her previous progressive for trainer Ismail Mohammed. 

Exceed could be worth a chance at a bigger price in race three (6.00), a winner at Yarmouth in August and sixth at Southwell last time out, pitched into handicaps here for the first time and can double his tally for the season at the first time of asking. Cabeza De Llave got back to winning ways when landing a course and distance contest just nine days ago and can give another good account of himself here for trainer Michael Attwater. 

A field of six will take on the one mile and two furlong novice stakes in class five to mark race four on Saturday (6.30) and the Jane Chapple-Hyam trained Salamanca was much improved when second on seasonal return and followed up with a tough fifth of nine in the Listed Derby Trial last time out. Dropping back in grade, the three-year-old is the one to beat here ahead of intriguing newcomer Tic Tok Trot, a 290,000 Siyouni gelding making racecourse debut for trainer David Loughnane. 

Sonmarg has been knocking on the door plenty of late and is taken to belatedly get back to winning ways in the race five (7.00) for the first time since 2023, while the sixth race on the card (7.30) can go the way of Cloudy Rose for trainer John Berry, significantly up in trip here after a good second at Brighton in a handicap outing on his last run. 

The penultimate race of the day arrives at 8.00 with a field of 11 taking on the mile handicap in class six, where the Jamie Osborne-trained Guildford is expected to go well off the back of a fourth at Wolverhampton just five days ago and runs here off an unchanged mark. Meng Tian was good at Wolverhampton too 12 days ago and rates the main danger off a 1lb lower mark and a 7lb claiming jockey on board in Sam Garcia taking further weight off.

Finally, the card comes to a close with a six runner handicap in class six (8.30), with preference in the finale heading the way of course and distance winner Porfitman for Ben Brookhouse, a solid second of 11 over this course and distance nine days ago so gets the nod on previous form.

Chelmsford selections – Saturday

4.55 – Storm Free

5.25 – Shamardia

6.00 – Exceed

6.30 – Salamanca

7.00 – Sonmarg

7.30 – Cloudy Rose

8.00 – Guildford

8.30 – Profitman