Andy Holding's Monday Racing Tips

MAYFAIR POMPETTE (NAP) (best price 5-2) clearly bumped into a very smart filly over today’s C&D last time out, but despite the exploits of Charlie Fellows’ inmate here 19 days ago, she appears to have been handed a golden opportunity by the assessor, and for that reason she’s strongly fancied to exploit the apparent leniency on her return to the scene of that effort on handicap debut.

Very eye-catching on her two outings as a juvenile, in particular the final one at Salisbury, the daughter of Toronado was sent off a big outsider on her return to action at today’s track 19 days ago and although she couldn’t quite manage to land a blow at the very impressive winner, Magical Morning, the subsequent exploits of the winner suggests she was probably up against a pattern-race performer in the making. Not knocked about, she came home with the sort of purpose to suggest she will be a different proposition next time and with the handicapper seeing fit to only give her a mark of 75, there’s a strong possibility she will leave that sort of rating well behind in due course.

CALATRAVA (best price 11-2) had little chance of keeping up with the potentially very smart filly Fooraat at Chelmsford last time out, but at the same time, she did more than enough to offer plenty of hope for the future and she rates a fairly strong each-each choice up against the males here this afternoon.

Mid-division in a soft ground maiden at Newmarket towards the backend of last season, Ralph Beckett’s filly wasn’t particularly strongly-fancied to make an impact on her first outing for 229 days, but having broken well to sit on the heels of the leaders approaching the home turn, she ran on well all the way down the straight to exceed expectations by some way. Although no match for the winner, who will probably be tackling pattern races from now on, the daughter of Havana Gold had some other useful fillies in her wake and if she can translate that same level of form back to turf, there’s more than fair chance she can shed her maiden tag.

Great House has to be of significant interest here following his eye-catching performance on his debut at Gowran, but he makes little appeal at his morning odds despite his obvious claims. The better option, therefore, is to find something a little meatier to chew on regards to value and the one that falls neatly into that criteria is PENNY OUT (best price 14-1).

More than useful in the National Hunt sphere, as a third in a Grade 3 hurdle at Down Royal last season testifies, John Kiely’s mare has yet to set the world alight on the Flat (virtually refused to race on her penultimate start), but there were signs over today’s C&D last time out she’s not a total lost cause in this discipline. Off the track for 229-days prior to her latest effort at the Greenmount Park venue, the daughter of Salutino was still very much in contention as the field swept past the three-furlong pole, but it was from that point onward when disaster struck. In trying to obtain a clear run down the inside of the track, she unfortunately met a wall of horses dropping back into her lap and that led to her having to sit and suffer while the stronger finishers down the outside swept by. Once out in the clear, however, she came home with the sort of intent to suggest she would have been a major player with anything like a smoother passage and that effort has to go down as a massive improvement to what she’s shown in the past. Apart from the favourite, she faces pretty much faces a carbon copy set of opponents as she did 12 days ago, so based on the theory and the likelihood that several of these will be using this as a prep for bigger targets down the line (Peregrine Run and Got Trumped likely to be Galway bound), the six-year-old mare looks massively overpriced – particularly in the without the favourite market.

UNLEASH (best price 5-1) shaped with more promise than his finishing position suggested on his debut at Beverley and with the likelihood of Bryan Smart’s colt taking a huge leap forward following that initial experience, he’s strongly fancied to make a bigger impact here this evening.

Extremely slowly away and well behind in the early stages as a result, the son of Showcasing was still trailing the field by some way at the two-furlong pole, but it was behind that point from which he really began to work out what was required. Hitting the line really strongly, the grey colt left the distinct impression he would have played a major role in the final outcome with a better break, so providing he’s learnt a valuable lesson from that initial endeavour, particularly his gate speed, there’s a decent chance he will go very close in a race of similar quality.