Andy Holding's Friday Racing Tips

BADGER BERRY (best price 10-3) created quite a favourable impression when he scored here eight days ago and with the strong possibility of more to come, Charlie Wallis’ gelding is taken to follow up.

Making his fibresand debut having not shown much in seven previous attempts, it was understandable why he would be trading at a big price beforehand, but he confounded his market position with a performance that strongly suggested the improvement he found was no fluke. Breaking alertly to race just behind the pace, the son of Epaulette could be seen travelling as well anything turning for home and then once switched out wide inside the final two-furlongs he powered his way to the front and pulled readily clear late on. Hitting the line strong, the four-year-old posted useful numbers for a horse of his grade and having the size and scope that points heavily in the direction of him becoming a regular at the Midland venue, he has all the attributes to continue his progression.

The stable of Dermot McLoughlin has hit a bit of a purple patch of late, and one of those responsible for the Co Meath’s good run is ADNAP (NAP) (best price 5-2) and he’s strongly fancied to keep himself and his trainer in the spotlight.

Extremely lightly-raced, the five-year-old intimated of better things to come when runner-up on his first start of the winter campaign back in November and he didn’t have to wait too long to justify that belief. Arriving back at the Co Lough circuit two weeks later, the son of Casamento was well-backed to shed his maiden tag and despite missed the kick slightly, he came through late on to score with more in hand than the winning margin suggested. Bumped up to mark of 65 and taking on a slightly better class of opponent for his most recent start, the five-year-old once again proved that he’s a step ahead of the assessor with another authoritative display and with the runner-up that night, Kinch, going on to advertise the value of the form here last week, he’s clearly hitting all the right notes at present. Although he can be a little sleepy coming out of the traps, hopefully he won’t get too far back here this evening and if that turns out to be the case, his finishing kick can end up being the decisive factor.