Andy Holding's Tuesday Racing Tips

COLEY’S KOKO (best price 5-1) ran a decent race on debut in what turned out to be a hot contest on the figures at Thirsk a few weeks ago and with the form of the race at the Yorkshire already beginning to take shape, Nigel Tinkler’s filly is likely to play a more significant role in this slightly weaker affair.

Quite well fancied judged on the market 20 days ago, the daughter of Kodiac showed bright speed to hold every chance at halfway, but in unable to sustain her effort all the way to the line, she ended up finishing just outside the money in fifth. That said, the winner Umm Kulthum was knocking out sub-33 second backend splits, so it was little wonder she was able to go with Richard Fahey’s flying machine and it’s interesting to note a horse who ran a similar race to her in the same heat, Ballintoy Harbour, bolted up since at Pontefract last week. Safe in the knowledge we are dealing with an above-average contest by two-year-old standards, she would only have to improve just a little to figure against today’s crowd and at the morning prices she makes loads of each-way appeal. 

DREAMLOPER (NAP) (best price 11-4) clocked a big number for a Class 5 novice fillies contest at Redcar last time out and providing she can replicate the same level of form now switched to the all-weather for the first time, Ed Walker’s filly has a fair chance of holding her own on handicap debut.

Extremely promising on her first two starts, especially the latter of the pair in a hot novice event at Doncaster, the daughter of Lope De Vege was unsurprisingly well-fancied to get off the mark at the third time of asking at the Yorkshire venue and although she faced a relatively easy task on paper, her performance in thrashing her 12 opponents was even greater than her pre-race expectations. Despite pulling like a mustang and expending valuable energy in the early stages, she still had enough class to tank her way down to the furlong pole and then once she’d established an unassailable lead, she had the luxury of being heavily eased in the closing 50 yards. Even though the brake pedal was in full use late on, she still managed to post the sort of time figure associated horses way beyond her current rating, so with the handicapper happy enough to allow her to run off a similar mark here this afternoon, she’s fancied to take full advantage of his apparent leniency. Moreover, the run style she adopted for the first time 22 days ago should be well suited to how the track is riding at present and providing she does manage to get to the front and dominate in the early exchanges, she’s going to be very difficult to peg back knowing how well she galloped all the way to the line last time.

The handicapper has certainly tried to put a fork into LUKE SHORT’s (best price 9-1) prospects of following up his recent Leopardstown win, but such was his dominance over his field 18 days ago that he might be capable of defying the rise.

A winner over a mile at Naas last season, Noel Meade’s gelding was tried over two furlongs further on his opening bow of this campaign, and although he ran well enough to finish fifth in quite a decent race at Fairyhouse, he left the impression he might be better off over shorter. As it turned out, that turned out to be the case at the Dublin venue as he strode well clear of his rivals in the closing stages and with his time figure also backing up the visual aspect of his display, the son of Sayif has bright prospects of defying top weight with wonder kid Gavin Ryan in the plate.