Andy Holding's Tuesday Racing Preview & Tips

There are two ways of looking at a horse like Cause Toujours, you either take the view that he just might be one of those who travels well but finds little for pressure, or one that – given a strongly run race on decent ground – could actually land a nice prize further down the line. Either way, he rates too dodgy a proposition until gathering further evidence and at the prices, he’s readily passed over in favour of THECLOCKISTICKING (NAP) (best price 2-1) who, on what we’ve seen so far, seems a far more straightforward character. Having showed promise in the point-to-point field, the son of Gamut made an encouraging start to life under rules when runner-up in a decent bumper at Market Rasen and he wasted no time in getting off the mark by making a sparkling debut over hurdles at Fakenham last time out. Despite being up against a heavily-backed Dan Skelton runner, Stuart Edmonds’ charge dismissed his main market rival with total distain at the Norfolk venue and even allowing for the fact he was eased down the closing stages, he still managed to record a facile 32 lengths success. Moreover, his overall time and final circuit sectionals point towards him running to a pretty fair standard, so even if the favourite turns out to be as good as he threatens to be, the lightly-raced five-year-old should still give him plenty to consider at the very least.

ARTHUR’S GIFT (best price 9-4) did precious little wrong other than just bumping into a well-handicap Ian Williams (there seems to be plenty of those about nowadays) horse over today’s C&D last time out, but without anything too sneaky in the field this afternoon, he looks to have a fine chance of gaining compensation. Having run well in a decent race on the figures previously, the son of Presenting was understandably well supported in the market and having travelled like the best horse in the race, it was just a shame the six-year-old and his backers weren’t rewarded with maximum returns. He does, however, still have the look of a very well handicapped horse based on the speed figure he posted that day and hailing from a yard ticking over at a fair rate of knots, Nigel Twiston-Davies’ inmate is strongly fancied to not miss the mark this time around.