Andy Holding's Monday Racing Tips

TRENCHTOWN ROCK (best price 13-2) pulled off a bit of a surprise when scoring at Wexford last time out, but the time figure he posted that day suggested there was no fluke about the performance and he’s taken to confirm that he’s a young horse on the up. Despite running with a degree of promise on handicap debut the time before at Sligo, Val O’Brien’s five-year-old was sent off an unconsidered 20-1 poke at the Newton Road venue, but that price turned out to be way off the mark as he ran out a fairly convincing winner. Off the back of sound fractions, the son of Big Bad Bob proved too strong for his 13 rivals late on, and with the fifth-placed horse, Luis Naturea going on to advertise the form with solid effort at Downpatrick next time out, confidence is fairly high that the lightly-raced gelding can run to a similar standard again.

Cadmium is surely going to prove that his Galway run was all wrong and if he runs to the same level that saw him land a hugely-competitive handicap chase at the Punchestown festival in a very fast time he may well justify his short price. However, ORNUA (best price 4-1) did finish in front of Willie Mullins’ inmate on merit at Ballybrit last time out and considering he wouldn’t have been suited by the soft ground that afternoon, he deserves more respect than his market position affords him back on a better surface. A real trail-blazer who attacks his fences, Henry De Bromhead’s gelding has taken well to his new discipline and following a promising third on his chase debut, his strong, front-running tactics were seen to good effect at Wexford and Newton Abbot. Racing on a track this afternoon that often compliments horses with his run style, the son of Mahler could be a tricky costumer to handle if he can dominate the early exchanges.

Blue Mountain is clearly going to attract most of the headlines here following his promise effort on debut, but the same can be said for the opening gambit of RED OCTOBER (NAP) (best price 4-1) at Salisbury and at the prices, Hugo Palmer’s colt makes far more appeal. Quite prominent in the betting beforehand, a slow beginning put the son of Dawn Approach on the back foot in the early stages but he gradually worked himself into the picture by halfway and his strong run was maintained all the way to the line. Although he couldn’t quite match the finishing kick of the eventual winner, the more experienced Jersey Wonder, the pair did pull well clear of the rest and with the time figure pointing towards it being a decent race of its kind, the two-year-old chestnut rates a confident choice to take a hand in tonight’s finish with just normal improvement.