Andy Holding's Thursday Racing Tips

Quite a few potentially top class fillies take to the field for this competitive Group 3 prize and TARDIS (best price 3-1) is strongly fancied to come out on top and confirm the solid form of her recent Newbury win.

Promising and slightly disappointing in equal measures on her first two starts, Michael Bell’s filly finally pulled all the strands together when showing a smart turn of foot to pull well clear of her rivals at Bath on her third outing and it was the first time she set the pulses racing on the clock. Sent to the Berkshire venue last time out to see whether she was up to the standard of pattern level, she answered the questions posed with some panache as she beat a decent assembly of fillies with a performance of some note. Held up towards the rear, she came through extremely powerfully in the closing stages and despite having to weave her way through the pack and lose a little impetus here and there, she ended up winning going away. Once again clocking a big speed figure, the daughter of Time Test also strongly hinted that an extra furlong wouldn’t go amiss and with today’s stiff six likely to bring about even further improvement, it will take a decent filly to lower her colours.

Neenee’s Choice arrives here right on top of his game and, as a result, is likely to prove difficult to beat, but if there’s one to shake the hornets’ nest its ZUHAIR (best price 4-1) and at the morning prices, he rates the value call of the pair.

Looking a progressive gelding on the up heading into his latest encounter at Leicester, it was no great surprise to see him well-fancied beforehand to complete his hat trick for the current campaign, but as it panned out, he couldn’t quite deliver the goods. In what turned out to be a very strongly run race at the Midland venue, Marcus Tregoning’s inmate just didn’t have the gear change inside the final two furlongs to maintain his position and in the end he could only keep on at the one pace to finish a respectable fourth. On the evidence of that display, the three-year-old chestnut shaped like he could easily defy his pedigree over distances beyond a mile and with him being a decent price in his bid to find out, a chance is taken he can bounce back to his best.

BONNEVAL (NAP) (best price 9-4) did remarkably well to land a competitive C&D handicap on the first night of the racing league fixtures and this progressive four-year-old rates a solid choice to supplement those gains.

Unlucky not to land at least one of his three previous starts, James Fanshawe’s gelding was heavily supported prior to tackling today’s stiff mile for the first time but even those who had maximum faith in him beforehand must have been anxious about their investment at halfway. Still last with three furlongs to run in a slowly run affair, the son of Siyouni impressed with the way he had to quicken up several times to not only to get to the leaders but then go by and in the end his comfortable success had to go down as an extremely commendable effort under the circumstances. Based on all his previous data, particularly on his two runs at Kempton, the four-year-old is just as handy in a strongly run environment, so no matter how today’s race pans out, he should have all the necessary armoury to come out on top.

STRIKE RED (best price 5-1) seemed all at sea around the tight bends of Lingfield last time out but he should turn out to be a totally different proposition returning to a C&D that will play more into his strengths and he should be played accordingly.

A clear-cut winner of a keenly-contested six-furlong handicap on the opening night of the racing league competition, Richard Fahey’s gelding seeked further glory when sent down to the Surrey venue for the first time but after a slow start that resulted in a poor early track position, he never looked likely to offer a repeat performance. He did, however, come home with plenty of purpose from off the home turn and with his closing three-furlong sectional of 32.7 being the best throughout the entire card, it’s clear he still remains in top form despite only finishing six of the 10 runners. Best when held up off a strong pace on a stiff track, today’s test should see the son of Dark Angel in a much better light and he rates a decent each-way proposition at the morning odds.