Andy Holding's Monday Racing Tips

XPO UNIVERSEL (best price 5-1) has gradually worked himself in to peak fitness and if his smooth success at Sedgefield on his latest start is an accurate guide to his current wellbeing, he has a fine chance to add to his winning tally.

A promising runner-up to Snowed Up at Catterick two starts ago strongly intimated signs of a revival and that notion was vindicated at the Durham venue eight days ago when he stayed on powerfully to score by a wide margin. Looking at his finishing sectionals that day, they reveal that he ran the final circuit in a quicker tie than the 133-rated Desaray Girl, and with one of his other previous victories coming over today’s C&D under similar conditions back in 2018, there’s a fair chance the son of Politiglote can repeat the dose for his in-form handler.

ROCKESBURY (NAP) (best price 7-4) arrives here one of the few in the race in any sort of decent shape and he’s fancied to gain reward for a couple of near misses over today’s track in recent times.

Runner-up to Ballet Red over the extended mile three starts ago, David Loughnane’s gelding filled out the same position when playing second fiddle to the strong-finishing Ruby Gates over the same trip here last week and that performance further enhanced his overall consistent profile at the track. Moreover, the speed figure for a race of its grade was very good compared to the 0-92 handicap run two hours later on the same card (both similar circuit times) and with today’s better draw, seven-furlong trip and pilot all seen as plus points, the five-year-old rates a fairly confident choice to justify his position in the market. Looking at the rest, Pearl Spectre has only raced at the Dunstall Park track in 73 appearances on the all-weather, and that resulted in him finishing last of 11, Hey Pretty is still winless in 13 starts on an artificial surface and Air Of York is extremely hard to win with nowadays.