Andy Holding's Thursday Horse Racing Tips

ME TOO NAGASAKI (best price 4-1) showed tremendous determination to get the job done at Doncaster last time out and this improving three-year-old look set to make a big impact here on Tapeta debut. Off the back of very sound fractions, Jeremy Noseda’s charge had to dig deep into his reserves of courage to get the better of the tenacious front-runner Wahesh, but he eventually got his just rewards for all his labours that night by getting up in the shadows of the post. Although untried on today’s surface he has experience of racing on an all-weather terrain courtesy of two sound performances in victory and defeat at Kempton and Chelmsford and he’s fancied to put it up to main market rival Pavillon who appears the obvious threat on all known form.

The fact that Verhoyen ran so well in a listed race at Naas last time points heavily towards the form of his previous encounter won by Beckford at the Curragh being very good, and having already finished ahead of Michael Grassick’s inmate at the Co Kildare on debut, RED PERSIAN (best price 4-1) is strongly fancied to confirm placings. Understandably taking a while for the penny to drop on his first day at school, Paddy Prendergast’s inmate really impressed by the way he finished off his race once engaging top gear and if he hadn’t momentarily been stopped in his run at a crucial stage, he may have actually come way from the race victorious. Given the time figure and subsequent performances of some of the beaten horses that day (most notably Would Be King and Commander Grigio), the form represents one of the best maiden races run so far in Ireland this season and with that initial experience sure to have done him the world of good and, more importantly, a much better draw than his main market rival (out on the wing in box 14), the son of Haatef makes a tremendous amount of appeal.

SUPER SCORPION (NAP) (best price 9-2) posted a cracking set of numbers when scoring over tonight’s C&D when last seen and looks a decent bet to follow up his return visit to the Welsh venue. Racing in the first-time hood, Debra Hamer’s inmate travelled like the best horse throughout and once set about his work inside the final half mile he stayed on strongly to account for the well-backed Ugolin De Beaumont. Looking a little deeper into the figures of that race reveals that in defying a 224-day absence, the son of Scorpion ran the final circuit 1.6 seconds faster than Sir Ivan (rated 135) and Cole Harden - who fought out the finish of the beginners chase earlier on the card – and with the fourth-placed horse, Earthmoves, going to back up the form with a win next time out, there’s every reason to believe this seven-year-old may still have a bit up his sleeve.

The Jessica Harrington bandwagon shows no signs of abating and BLACK RUBY (best price 11-4), having run eye-catchingly well on her debut, is strongly fancied to keep up the good work for the Co Kildare handler. Although she acted the goat in the preliminaries, the daughter of Dansili proved perfectly tractable during the race itself and in making the more experience Dalulena pull out all the stops in the closing stages, she ran to a decent figure first time off the shelf. The form of the race has been given a boost with the winner going in again and likely to have benefitted greatly from the initial experience, she taken to go one place better.