Andy Holding's Sunday Racing Tips

Unsurprisingly, recent Flat winners WARNAQ (best price 4-1) and Share The Honour dominate the betting landscape in this competitive-looking contest, but preference is very much with the former based on his sounder knowledge of today’s track.

Although she’s only stepped foot once on the Co Meath venue, she couldn’t have been any more impressive when battering the very smart Inscribe by six lengths over a mile on the level back in April and even though it took her a while to return back into the winners’ enclosure, that latest victory at sister track Naas was equally meritorious. Setting out to make it a sound clip 21 days ago, Matthew Smith’s filly maintained a relentless gallop from the front and in repelling a whole host of challengers in the latter stages, the four-year-old posted a decent speed figure into the bargain. Now rated 88 on the Flat courtesy of that facile success, the daughter of Arcano returns to the winter game off a bargain basement mark of just 103 and having shown a fair degree of form on her last start over hurdles at Fairyhouse three starts ago, hope is high that she can take advantage of the apparent leniency under ideal underfoot conditions.

INDIROCCO (best price 11-4) got beat a fair way on chasing debut at Market Rasen last time out, but the race was so good on the figures, that Dan Skelton’s gelding still ran to a pretty fair level back in fourth and with today’s contest looking decidedly weaker, he’s fancied to make a bigger impact this afternoon.

Fairly modest over hurdles, the son of Shirocco was interestingly nibbled at in the market on his first outing in his new discipline and although that punt didn’t quite come off, there was a degree of promise to be gleaned with the performance on the whole and it’s clear that he could turn out to be a different proposition after undertaking wind surgery. Surprisingly dropped further in the ratings following that excellent effort, the five-year-old gets a chance to run here off bottom weight and with today’s extra trip seen as a challenge he might well relish, he’s taken to provide his in-form handler another winner at today’s track.

Having landed this pot for the last four years, it makes sense to look towards Gordon Elliot-trained runners in this prestigious event and although WOODS WELL (best price 20-1) is one of the bigger-priced contenders according to the layers for the Co Meath handler, there’s a decent chance the son of Fleetwood can outrun his odds. After winning first time out over fences at Fairyhouse this time last year, apart from a fair effort on his next start, the chestnut gelding turned out to be a bitter disappointment in much stiffer assignments thereafter. That said, he did run well in one of the big-field staying handicaps at the Punchestown festival in April and that gave out hope that he might be capable of returning to happier times this campaign. Indeed, that turned out to be the case on the evidence of his opening salvo this season when he showed great battling qualities to fend off the smart Rashaan in a driving finish at Galway, and with today’s favourite Minella Beau a well-beaten third, it makes no sense why the seven-year-old can be chalked up a whopping four times bigger price than Willie Mullins’ inmate.