Andy Holding's Sunday Racing Tips

Bachasson has been in terrific heart of late and will obviously have his supporters in his bid to continue the winning theme, but it’s been six years since he ran over the minimum trip and whether he has the basic speed at the age of 10 to cope with the fresher legs of BEACON EDGE (best price 15-8) is open to question.

Noel Meade’s gelding has taken really well to hurdles and following a smooth victory at Punchestown on his first attempt, he went on to run two excellent races in defeat in Graded company over today’s C&D on his final two starts of last season. Off the mark at the first time of asking this term, the son of Doyen raised his game to lower the colours of the useful mare Minella Melody at Galway on his next outing and that performance was enough to tempt connections to have a crack at Grade 1 company last time out at Fairyhouse. In what turned out to be a tactical, slowly-run Hatton’s Grace, the seven-year-old just didn’t have the necessary tools to cope with the high-class pair Honeysuckle and Ronald Pump in the latter stages, but at the same time he was by no means disgraced, and it was a performance to strongly suggest he still remains on an upward curve. Although he stays 2m4f well, he’s not short of boot either, and the combination of speed and stamina he harbours might turn out to be the deciding factor under today’s conditions at a track where he’s gone well in the past.

Glens Of Antrim did really well to get within striking range of stable mate Stattler at Leopardstown last time out and she looks a fair prospect in the making, but on the same token, she will have to smarten up her jumping, especially as she takes on a formidable opponent in the shape of MR INCREDIBLE (best price 15-8), who arguably brings and even stronger line of form into this contest from the same four-day meeting.

Runner-up in a point-to-point for previous connections back in October, Henry De Bromhead’s gelding made his rules debut in a decent-looking maiden hurdle at the Dublin venue two months later and his performance in chasing home the potentially top-class Gaillard Du Mesnil has to go down as a seriously solid effort for a horse so inexperienced. In what turned out to be an extremely strongly-run affair 34 days ago, the son of Westerner ended up being the only one capable of offering any sort of resistance to a horse who is deservedly on the shortlist for the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival and with the pair well clear of the rest and the time figure backing up the visually impression the winner created, it has to go down as a solid foundation for the future. Furthermore, the race has worked out really well since with the third bolting up and a whole host of the stragglers going on to finish in the frame in their subsequent outings, and with the prospect of even more to come given his background, the five-year-old chasing type can certainly make the favourite work hard for her corn at the very least.