Andy Holding's Monday Racing Tips

LADY BOWTHORPE (NAP) (best price 7-4) ran a race full of promise in a hot novice event on her first start for 317 days at Chelmsford last time out and she rates the one to beat providing she runs anywhere near the same standard.

Jumping in the air slightly as the gates crashed back at the Sussex venue, Willie Jarvis’ filly found herself on the back foot from an early stage and to make matters worse she was then forced to race wide as she made progress to race handy down the back straight and rounding the home bend. To her ultimate credit, however, she somehow managed to keep on well and lose no further ground inside the final two furlongs and to eventually only get beaten two lengths by the likes of Mutamaasik and Visionara, who have both won since, is testimony to her ability. Obviously, she can’t afford to give ground away at the start today around this sharper track, but providing all goes well in that department, the daughter of Nathaniel easily has the ability to win a race of this nature even though she probably wants further in time.

SEE THE SEA (best price 11-4) is a mare going places in a hurry and she’s strongly fancied to add to her recent victories at Cartmel and over tonight’s C&D last time. Extremely good visually and on the speed figures when making all the running at the Lake District venue back in June (third and sixth won since), the daughter of Sea The Stars was well-backed to repeat the dose here two months later (5-2 into 6-4) and she didn’t disappoint her supporters with a performance of some quality. Once again setting good fractions from the start, Donald McCain’s filly gradually wound up the pace heading down the back straight for the final time and despite the looming threat of main market rival Illustrissime (rated 119) in her rear-view mirror turning for home, she found plenty for pressure to record another notable success. Despite winning in the manner she did, the assessor has kept her on the same mark of 117 and on the evidence of that effort 17 days ago, that stance, along with her position in today’s early price table, seriously underestimates her recent achievements.

DROMANA (best price 5-1) ran a good deal better than her finishing position suggests at Leopardstown last time out and she’s taken to return to the same level of excellence she’d been showing for most of the season. Since upped to distances beyond 1m2f, John Oxx’s filly has shown a consistent level of form and her wide-margin victory at Limerick in mid-summer was only what she deserved. Placed twice thereafter, the daughter of Dutch Art was a strong choice for many to continue her rich vein of form at the Dublin-based venue 11 days ago, but being poorly positioned coming out of the back straight in a slowly run race meant she unable to land any kind of telling blow. That said, she may have finished closer had she not run up the backside of several dropping back into her lap inside the final two furlongs and on that evidence, she remains in the rudest of health and one to keep on side until told otherwise.