Andy Holding has two selections for Sunday's racing. Including a NAP at Carlisle.
14:15 Naas
Although it’s the first day of the new Flat season at Naas and you can never be totally sure, history dictates the draw on the straight track when the ground is heavy often favours those towards the nearside, so with that in mind, it might be worth taking a punt on PHANTOM POWER (best price 14-1), who has caught the eye on his last two starts at Dundalk.
Too green to do himself justice on his debut back in November, Edward Lynam’s gelding has acquitted himself much better on his next two starts, underlined by the fact he’s not got beaten too far despite been drawn out in the cheap seats. Housed in box 17 (effectively 14 of 14) two starts ago, the son of Dark Angel was noted doing some good late work to finish only three lengths behind the main players and it was almost a copy and paste performance back at the Co Lough venue on his most recent outing. A nice big strong gelding who has the mould of sprinter, he also comes from a family with plenty of soft ground form, so he might have half a chance of competing on a level playing field with some of today’s sexier three-year-olds with fitness on his side and if he ends up on the right part of the track.
14:55 Carlisle
SINDABELLA (NAP) (best price 2-1) proved that a strong gallop under testing ground on a stiff track where very much to her liking her last time out and providing she’s made a sufficient recovery from that ground-breaking victory 17 days ago, she has a fine chance of repeating the dose.
On a day when the conditions were pretty arduous courtesy of a very strong wind, there were not too many horse up for the fight, but the daughter of Sinndar bucked that particular trend with a brave and tenacious display in coming from well off the speed to get up in the dying strides. Comparing her time figure and final lap sectionals to the 123-rated Royal Arcade over the same C&D, her set of numbers come out extremely favoured for a horse rated in the 80’s and with today’s set of opponents unlikely to get anyone’s knees knocking with nervousness, Nigel Hawke’s mare has all the right credentials to further add to her trainer’s excellent recent record at today’s venue (8-28 since 2016).
