Our racing expert is on fire with four winners in his last six tips.
13:00 Lingfield
DIGER DAUDAIE (best price 6-1) showed a great attitude on his way to a breakthrough victory at Newcastle last time out and with that underbelly of steeliness a massive commodity to have as one of his weapons, Charlie Longsdon’s gelding is fancied to grind out another result at a track that compliments horses who love getting down and dirty.
A promising fifth in what’s turned out to be a red-hot novice event at Chepstow on his first start over hurdles (Queen Of Hearts, Know The Score, and Newtide all winning since), the five-year-old was sent on his travels up North in a bid to get off the mark and having been well-backed in the morning exchanges to justify the trip, he got up off the canvas to pull off the unlikely win. Although he looked to be just keeping on at the one-pace in the latter stages at the Gosforth Park venue, his closing sectionals reveal that he was deceptively running a lot quicker than at first thought, and given that he seems to have stamina in abundance, today’s step up in trip should allow him to run another huge race.
17:30 Dundalk
As is often the case at this track, a wide draw can be a proper barrier to overcome, so the fact that ABOVE US ONLY SKY (best price 8-1) still managed to run as well as she did here last time out from the outside post makes her a strong proposition 16 days on.
Dropped out by design in the early stages in order to be given some sort of hope, Charles O’Brien’s gelding had a mountain to climb as the field turned for home, but to her great credit she somehow managed to run on well to salvage a third-place finish from the wreckage. Much better housed her this evening in gate two, hopefully the daughter of Dark Angel can break well and hold a decent early position and if so, she’ll have every chance on upholding her useful record at the track.
20:00 Dundalk
If the sectionals times from the last meeting are a good guide, nothing in this field can live with SPANISH DAWN (NAP) (best price 9-4) in the closing stages and for that reason, she rates the best bet on the card to follow up that thoroughly convincing effort. Having showed improved form on her first attempt over today’s C&D three starts ago, the daughter of Helmet had to be marked down as a disappointment on her next outing when she failed to see out the 1m 4f journey. Dropped back in trip 14 days ago, John McConnell’s inmate was this time dropped right out towards the rear of field, clearly ridden for a turn of foot, and those new tactics proved to be an instant hit as she breezed by the entire field in the home straight to win going away. Moreover, her final three-furlong surge of 34.9 was over two seconds quicker than the other two round-track races on the same night, so providing she’s in a similar vein on her return visit to the Co Louth venue, the five-year-old will surely take plenty of stopping.
