Andy Holding's Friday Racing Tips

MANNING ESTATE (NAP) (best price 7-2) has been plying his trade against some fairly useful novices this season and, as he also has a nice bit of track form to boot, he makes plenty of appeal on handicap debut off a reasonable mark.

Although it took Oliver Sherwood’s inmate a little while to finally get off the mark, it was no more than he deserved and the nice thing about that victory on Town Moor was how tenacious he was under pressure after the last. Prior to that solid performance, the son of Stowaway had found the testing conditions at Plumpton just finding him out in the latter stages in a well-run affair, but now back on his favoured good ground again this afternoon, he has every chance of performing at maximum capacity. 

CORNBOROUGH (best price 10-1) just seems to be lacking a gear change over the minimum trip nowadays so he’s well worth a small interest to see whether the step up in distance brings about any improvement. 

A regular in these Class 3 events in recent times, Mark Walford’s gelding has popped up every now and then, but it’s mainly over today’s course when he really comes to life. Only once out of the frame in five visits at the Yorkshire venue, the eight-year-old was last successful here back in November when the good ground that day really played into his strengths.

Unsuited by how the race panned out at Market Rasen on his latest outing, the son of Sir Percy did, however, keep on well enough to suggest he’s maintaining a fair level of form and even though he’s up against a potentially sneaky one in the shape of Thosedaysaregone (always worth a look at the market strength), a decent effort is still anticipated. 

CANFORD BAY (best price 5-2) ran a good bit better than his final finishing position suggest at Wolverhampton the other day and he’s fancied to bounce back to his best form racing over a track that has served him well in the past.

A high draw (11 of 11) was always likely to prove problematical at the Dunstall Park venue – especially over the five-furlong trip – and so it turned out as Anthony Brittain’s gelding could never land a meaningful blow in a race where it paid to be handy. The five-year-old did, however, finish his race off with enough lead left in his pencil to suggest he would have gone close with a better stall position and luck in running and having yet to run a bad race over tonight’s stiff track in six previous visits, it goes against the grain to oppose him on his return to his happy hunting ground.