Steve Ryder Monday Racing Tips

The opening race of the day is a match between Annual Invictus and DINO VELVET (best priced at 11-4) and preference goes to the latter who looks overpriced against his lesser experienced rival. The Alan King trained eight-year-old has form figures of 13223 over fences so far this season (albeit in small fields) and has now dropped back down to an attractive looking mark of 128.

Dino Velvet always stays on well at the finish over 2 miles so this step up to nearly 2m4f should suit him and I am hoping that his superior chasing experience means he can put the jumping of Annual Invictus under pressure in this race. He is technically 1lb wrong at the weights but I feel he is worth taking a chance on at the prices.

This looks like a weak novices’ hurdle and preference goes to HARDE FASHION (best priced at 5-4) who comes here following a good 2nd placed effort at Stratford last time on his hurdling debut. The Daniel Bourne trained five-year-old ran well in three bumpers last season when trained by Kim Bailey before finishing 2nd on his stable debut last time.

Harde Fashion only finished a head behind the winner Ballintubber Boy that day and the pair pulled 18 lengths clear of the third. He made a couple of novicey mistakes 30 days ago so hopefully, he comes on for that experience and he should be able to beat the Gary Moore trained Next Left who achieved a lower RPR on his hurdling debut last time.

The Milton Harris stable continues in excellent form currently with a 35% strike rate in the last two weeks and a 24% strike rate since April and his representative MR YEATS (best priced at 5-2) should prove hard to beat in his bid for a hat-trick. The four-year-old returned from an 87-day break to win a handicap hurdle at Wincanton off a mark of 77 before following up earlier this month off a mark of 80.

Mr Yeats won easily last time at Huntingdon by three lengths and should hold strong claims in this race under a 7lb penalty. James Best takes over from 3lb claimer Mitchell Bastyan which is actually a slight negative in my opinion but I feel that he is still well handicapped enough to win this and should be able to continue his stable’s good form.