Andy Holding's Sunday Racing Tips

A cracking mares listed event with several arriving here in tip-top shape, none more so than DELVINO (best price 5-2) who rates by far and away the nicest long-term prospect of the seven due to go to post.

Showing classy form in bumpers last season, Dermot McLoughlin’s mare was expected to do even better once sent hurdling, so it was quite a shock to see her sent off 9-1 (touched 25-1 on the machine pre-race) to make a winning start in her new vocation at Naas a month ago. Whether the jungle drums were suggesting she might need the run after a 272-day absence lord only knows but at no stage did she ever look like she was going to get beat and for those that laid her at such fanciful odds, the four minutes that ensued must have been a pretty painful watch. Although in was just a maiden hurdle, it looked a deep field beforehand with the likes of Castra Vetera, Royal Illusion and Roseys Hollow in the line-up and given the way she disposed of the trio of highly-regarded mares, the future looks bright for this scopey individual who has a touch of class. Needless to say, Hook Up looks the obvious threat having run her best two races at today’s track and hailing from a yard who are enjoying a ridiculously time of things of late even by their high standards.

It was very much a table for one where SIGURD (best price 2-1) was concerned here last time out and Joanne Foster’s gelding looks set to repeat the dose returning to the scene of his facile success six days ago. Going into the contest at the Yorkshire venue following a positive display at Market Rasen, the nine-year-old always looked in total control in the hands of Gavin Sheehan who deliberately kept him out wide on the better ground and those tactics paid handsome rewards. Clearly suited by the return of the blinkers and tongue-tie combination, the son of Sholokhov will hopefully receive a similarly astute ride from the champion jockey and if so, the combination should prove hard to beat against similar opposition.