Andy Holding's Sunday Racing Tips

GUSTAVUS WESTON (best price 9-2) was victorious in this very race two years ago under similar conditions and based on his recent form, he could be about to strike again despite facing a gaggle of in-form performers, mainly from the three-year-old category.

By and large, Joseph Murphy’s gelding has always saved some of his best form for the Co Kildare venue and that was never more apparent here two starts ago when he captured the Group 2 Greenland Stakes at the main expense of track specialists, Make A Challenge and Sonaiyla. Back here 56 days later, the five-year-old only found the pacey Mooneista too strong for him the closing stages of a similarly keenly-contested Group 2, but as five-furlongs on good ground wouldn’t necessarily be his optimum, his performance deserves extra credit. A strong stayer at today’s trip, especially when there’s plenty of give underfoot, the son of Equaino’s chances of landing this prize increase with every drop of rain that falls during the hours leading up to post time.

DAJRAAN (best price 5-2) only found the progressive The Attorney too good for him over today’s C&D last time, but as the time figure was extremely good for the grade, Kevin Ryan’s colt is fancied to make amends if running to a similar level.

A wide-margin winner of a Class 6 event at Redcar previously, the lightly-raced three-year-old was still well-fancied to supplement those gains despite being clobbered 12lb in the ratings and although he came up a little short in his bid to overcome that impost, the way he went through the race indicated he wasn’t out of place two grades higher. Travelling strongly from the start, this well-built sort had most of the field at full tilt deep into the heart of the race and in the end, it took a big effort by the eventual winner – certainly based on the clock – to overhaul him in the closing stages. He did, however, finish nicely clear of the rest and with the distinct feeling that he will only get better with more racing under his belt, it’s just a question of whether he can cope with ground likely to be softer than what he faced 24 days ago (forecast showers all day).