Andy Holding's Tuesday Racing Tips

Although we are only dealing with a fairly small sample (two meetings to be precise) there appears to be an advantage by racing towards the nearside on the newly-laid straight track at the Co Mallow venue and if that proves to be the case again, then CLOCKERS CORNER (best price 6-1) looks in the prime position to back up his recent easy success at Listowel.

Having run well on his first outing on soft ground the time before at Killarney, hope was fairly high that John Oxx’s gelding could convert that promising effort into the win column and he duly delivered the goods with a bit to spare. In running a decent time figure at the harvest festival, the three-year-old chestnut readily accounted for subsequent winners Royal Canford (won easily at the Curragh at the weekend) and Merricourt (won at Dundalk) and with that performance once again coming on soft ground, today’s underfoot conditions over the 7f trip should prove ideal.

A real mish-mash of characters line up for this Group 3 and the one who could easily be open to the most improvement and receives the confident vote as a result is UP HELLY AA (NAP) (best price 9-2).

Willie McCreery’s colt lacks the experience of many having only had the three runs, but on each occasion he’s showed a fair degree of promise and quality and he’s totally deserves his place in a line-up of this nature. A big eye-catcher on his debut here back in May, the son of Galileo duly backed up the impression he created that day with a smooth success at Gowran and that performance was good enough to persuade connections to pursue the golden nugget of black type. Sent to Leopardstown to try and achieve that feat, the three-year-old colt didn’t disappoint on that score and although he couldn’t quite get on terms with the eventual winner, Mohawk, his overall performance deserved upgrading considering how much ground he had to make up in the short home straight. Brought along steadily by connections, hopefully their patience and diligence will reap maximum rewards and even if today doesn’t end being his day, he still remains one to keep on side for the future.

Lakemilan has been in a decent nick over hurdles of late, but a good deal has to be taken on trust that she will translate that form on only her second start on the Flat and preference goes in favour HARRIET TUBMAN (best price 6-1), who ran a blinder on her debut at Listowel 18 days ago.

It was a little disconcerting to see Jim Bolger’s filly sport blinkers and a tongue-tie for her debut at the harvest festival, but that combination didn’t stop her running to a fair standard on her first run off the bat. Drawn wide, the daughter of Dubawi was bounced out the stalls to obtain a handy position going into the first bend and although they seemed like good tactics at the time, because the pace was so strong up front, it ended up being a poisoned chalice. To her great credit, therefore, to keep going the way she did in the closing stages was testimony to her talent and attitude and hopefully she will carry those same sort of qualities forward into today’s contest. Moreover, the runner-up that day, Jazz Lady, has gone to boost the form by bolting up by eight wickets at Galway next time and with similar conditions in place here again this afternoon, the once-raced three-year-old has every chance of providing her in-form handler (two winners at the Curragh Saturday) with another winner.