Andy Holding's Monday Racing Tips

MIKMAK (best price 8-1) is becoming a hard horse to catch right, but now returning to a track where his form figures read 122326, Tim Easterby’s gelding is worth a small interest to see whether he can put a series of frustrating performances behind him.

Quietly-fancied to run a big race in the Carlisle Bell two starts ago, the son of Mikmak was dropped out the back due to his high draw and, as a result, he duly met all sorts of trouble in running when trying to mount some sort of challenge down the home straight. Back in a small field where they didn’t go much of a gallop at Hamilton last time out, the six-year-old saw way too much daylight for his liking and he eventually faded back in the pack once swallowed up by the those with a better turn of foot. As there are several strong front-runners in tonight’s line-up, he’s likely to be given a more typically patient ride and with the hope that his happy hunting ground sparks some sort of revival, he rates a fair each-way bet at his morning odds with the dead eight set to go to post.

JERANDME (NAP) (best price 10-11) left the impression he was the best horse in the race despite not winning at Kilbeggan last time out and he gets the chance to put that theory to the test on his return to the Flat. Well-backed to get the better of three opponents at the Westmeath venue, Noel Meade’s gelding travelled supremely strongly through the majority of the three-mile journey, but ultimately his natural exuberance got the better of him and in the end he was picked off late on by the more conservatively ridden Doctor Duffy on the run-in. Prior to that useful effort, the five-year-old had made the smart Royal Illusion pull out all the stops in a 1m7f maiden at Leopardstown and with his conqueror going on to lower the colours of stable companion Mr Adjudicator at Bellewstown on his next start, the form looks particularly solid in the context of tonight’s race. Indeed, when you take into account his two main market rivals, Smart Living and Forest View, have been beaten a grand total of 25 lengths respectively on their last two starts, it really goes to show how weak this race is with regards to strength in depth and quality. As the son of Azamour is a previous course winner over 2m5f and has also won a bumper here over 2m, one would imagine plenty of use will be made of him here this evening and providing those tactics end up being played out, it will be extremely disappointing if this strong-travelling type wasn’t able to turn this lot away.