Andy Holding's Tuesday Racing Tips

As three-year-old’s in handicaps can often come into their own at this time of year, it’s always worth paying attention to anything from the classic generation when they meet their older counterparts and NARJES (NAP) (best price 10-11) stands out as one that looks to have got away with a particularly lenient mark on her first attempt in this sphere. Promising as a two-year-old, James Fanshawe’s inmate has had just the one start so far this term and the fact that it came over today’s C&D in such eye-catching fashion augurs well for her chances here this afternoon. Running on extremely strongly in the latter stages of a well-run affair, the daughter of Sepoy only narrowly failed to get up after a power-packed finish inside the final two furlongs and with form of the contest working out well subsequently (Plutonian and Inshiraah both won since), it’s pretty safe to say it was decent race of its kind. Sure to be all the better for that initial outing and representing a yard in terrific form at the moment, it would come as something of a surprise if she fails to take advantage of a perch of just 71.

CANBERRA CLIFFS (best price 11-4) has been extremely well campaigned since joining Don Cantillon from David Wachman and this improving three-year-old looks to have been found another decent opportunity by her canny handler. Beginning UK handicap life off a mark of 62, the daughter of Canford Cliffs quickly took advantage of that leniency with a victory at Nottingham and although she got beat on her next outing back at the same track, she regained the winning thread at Beverley two weeks later. A creditable third in a much tougher assignment at York last time out, she still came out of the race with great credit and with stamina one of the key attributes to her game, today’s stiff uphill climb to the line should play into her strengths.

In what looks to be a cracking race on paper for this time of year, CLARA SORENTO (best price 6-1) and OAKLY (best price 14-1) appear slightly overpriced based on their progressive profiles. The former ran a good deal better than his finishing position suggested two starts ago in a decent handicap at Punchestown and he backed up that view by capturing a smart rated hurdle on his return visit to the Co Kildare venue last time out. Not only was the time figure useful that day, Noel Meade’s charge accounted for some fairly progressive types in the shape of Westland Row, Sword Fighter and Miss Marden (won on the Flat since) and safe with the knowledge that he also has plenty of solid form on an easy surface, any showers in the area won’t inconvenience him as much as others.

The latter is quite a difficult one to get a handle on after just one competitive start, but it’s fair to say he looks to have plenty of talent based on that sole victory achieved over tonight’s C&D a month ago (bought to replace the stable’s very smart Graded performer Lots Of Memories). Despite being sent off a 33-1 poke, he travelled like the best horse throughout in what turned out to be a well-run affair and very strong in the final half-mile, there appeared to be no fluke about the performance. Indeed, not only did he post a two second quicker overall time than Dorans River and Robin Des Foret, who fought out the finish of the rated hurdle half-an-hour later on the same card, his final lap time was on a par with those two more experienced rivals, and based on those findings alone, there’s no way he should by three times the price of that pair who head the market here this evening.