Andy Holding's Friday's Racing Tips

POPULAIRE (best price 7-2) ran a race full of promise on her debut over today’s C&D over a month ago and even though she’s likely to be up against several from the unraced category that are bound to be above-average, she’s still expected to hold her own with that all-important experience on her side.

Held up towards the rear of mid-division early doors 45 days ago, Amanda Perrett’s filly took a while for the penny to drop at the Berkshire track, but once realising what was expected, she came home with a decent amount of purpose to finish on the heels of the main players. Form-wise, the race doesn’t appear too bad with the winner going on to run well in the Group 2 Lowther next time and the sixth horse home, Gypsy Whisper, winning next time out and hailing from a yard whose two-year-olds often improve significantly from that initial outing, the daughter of Zebedee should be capable of troubling the judge.

TOMMY G (best price 13-2) caught the eye with the way he finished off his race after a tardy beginning at Doncaster last week and with some of his best results in the past coming over today’s course, the locally-trained six-year-old can put up a bold show.

Dropped out due to his poor draw on Town Moor, Jim Goldie’s gelding found himself in an uncompromising position at the halfway stages and as they didn’t go a particularly strong gallop down to that point, the situation was exacerbated even further. Running into a wall of horses dropping back into his lap at the two pole didn’t exactly help matters either and by the time he’d wormed his way out of trouble and into the clear, the race was over as far as gaining a decent finishing position was concerned. The way he came home inside the final furlong, however, very much suggested he’s a horse primed to strike in due course and having scored over today’s course four times in the past – and also finished third in the Stewards Cup consolation a month ago – the son of Makfi shouldn’t be too far away with luck in running.

A wide-open mares handicap hurdle and the two that make the most appeal at the morning prices are TARA DYLAN (best price 10-1) and ALOHAMORA (best price 14-1).

The former had to wait a while before finally getting off the mark over hurdles when scoring at Kilbeggan two starts ago, but that victory must have given a massive injection of confidence as she went on to run her face off in the Grade B Listowel Hurdle at the Harvest Festival only last week. Travelling as well as anything turning for home she kept on well to finish a close-up fourth behind David’s Charm and a repeat of that level of form will surely see her outrun her odds.

The latter hasn’t been in as deep as that although she bumped into the improving Gavin Cromwell-trained gelding, Top Of The Charts, at Clonmel last time out. Prior to that solid third-place finish, James Nash’s mare had also acquitted herself with great credit in a hot handicap at Bellewstown and another positive display looks on the cards given her level of form she’s showing at present.

LUSIS NATUREA (best price 4-1) has been in fairly consistent form throughout the turf Flat season and he’s fancied to keep that good run going back on a surface that has served him well in the past.

A cosy winner at Down Royal back in August, Paul Traynor’s gelding has run well on three outings subsequently and even though his fifth place finish back at the same track probably doesn’t appear too clever at first glance, the numbers of that race in question were extremely good for the grade. Clearly, though, 2m2f going the pace they did was a bridge too far for the son of Multiplex, but now dropping back to his ideal trip back to a track where he’s scored twice before, it would come as a massive shock if he wasn’t bang in the mix on his return visit this evening.

SIMSIR (NAP) (best price 5-2) created a very favourable impression when scoring with plenty in hand on debut at Cork and hailing from a yard that doesn’t often have too many first time out winners, he’s strongly fancied to vindicate the theory that he must be well above-average to have achieved such a feat.

Very much the second string of the Michael Halford-trained duo at the Co Mallow venue, it looked like he was due to play a minor role as the field swept passed the two-furlong pole, but in putting in a powerful surge in the latter stages, he easily overhauled his stable mate, Hazran, to score going away. A proper big unit with a ton of scope, it was notable that he really opened up extremely well once in full cry and with that opening performance just being the tip of the iceberg regards his potential, it would come as no great surprise if he were to take another huge leap forward and provide the favourite, Dunkirk Harbour, with all the trouble he can handle.