Andy Holding's Tuesday Racing Tips

Sometimes, a horse’s capabilities to cope with extreme conditions supersedes their level of ability compared to another, so with that in mind, STILL BELIEVING (best price 9-4) is taken to topple several speedier Flat types on account of her solid background of many useful efforts over jumps on testing ground. Evan Williams’ charge probably would have little chance of winning a race of this nature, but with today’s venue soaking up plenty of rain in the last 48 hours, the heavy ground should turn out to be a proper leveller. Proven under such conditions thanks to victories over distances beyond 2m 4f several times over indicates she has plenty of stamina and also having solid form over today’s track in the past will surely count for plenty. Having landed a similar maiden with outsider Catcher On The Go here at the last meeting, there’s a decent chance the canny Welsh handler can repeat the dose with this likeable daughter of Blueprint.

By the time they run the last race here today, conditions should be pretty filthy for these delicate Flat types, but having come from a background of hard-knocking races in the middle of winter in Ireland, PRUSSIAN EAGLE (best price 6-1) shouldn’t mind one jot the fact that the runners are going in deep up to their ankles. A smart hurdler back in the day with several useful efforts in Graded races against his name when trained by Charles O’Brien, the son of Jeremy hasn’t quite been able to match those performances since switching to his Welsh base, but he did manage to score tidily over today’s track two starts ago to suggest the ability still remains and that is one of the main reasons why he appeals as an interesting runner back here today. Although most of his best form back in his native land is over middle distances, that may not be a bad thing given this is likely to become a test of stamina rather than speed and off a mark of just 70, he surely has a great chance to make his presence felt against a field largely unproven on the ground.  

IVY LEAGUER (best price 7-1) could have done with a better draw, but either way, he has to be worth a roll of the dice given how unlucky he was last time out at Bath. Trapped in behind a wall of horses going well with two furlongs to run, the son of Compton Place failed to get out in time, but given how well he finished off his race once out in the clear, it’s easy to draw to the conclusion he would have won with a clear run. Outclassed against top-quality pattern horses the previous two starts, Brian Mehan’s inmate is clearly much better than his current rating of 70 (actually dropped 1lb from last time) based on the evidence we saw 28 days ago, it’s just a question of whether he can translate his abilities to this new terrain and get a decent passage through from his outside post.

Predictably, Golden Goal and Important Mission have attracted all the limelight here following their decent efforts over course last time out, but both are dropping down in trip whereas AVENTINUS (NAP) (best price 11-1) is a real specialist over 7f and, as a result, he looks to be way overpriced based on his overall profile. Although he’s proven on the turf, his best surface appears to be synthetics based on his speed figures and following a promising effort behind Permian at Kempton last season, the son of Zoffany has yet to run a bad race in three subsequent outings on the all-weather. Indeed, his victory over the very smart Qatar Man over today’s C&D stands out as a quality piece of form and he went on to underline his preference for the polytrack when accounting for another decent field – which included one of tonight’s main opponents Moolazim – at Lingfield back in April. Failing to handle the soft ground at Goodwood last time out, most bookmakers appear to have forgotten the qualities he possesses when he has his optimum conditions and from his favourable inside draw, he should go close to biting the layers in the backside back at one of his happy hunting grounds.