Andy Holding's Tuesday Racing Tips

Brief Times will clearly attract the attention of many given his form figures, but the last time he raced right-handed, he looked far from a straightforward conveyance by jumping out to the left, so with that in mind, EARTH COMPANY (best price 7-4) should hopefully be best placed to take advantage.

A promising third behind the smart Knappers Hill on his hurdling debut over today’s C&D, Philip Hobbs’ gelding had clearly benefitted from the wind operation he’d undertaken back in the Spring and with that new-found freedom attached to his mechanics, he went into his latest encounter at Taunton with renewed confidence. Sent off joint second-favourite in a field that contained old rival Gala De Corton and previous Kempton winner Jay Jay Reilly, the son of Arcadio sat in behind his two main market opponents for three-quarters of the journey and then when the pace collapsed on the run down to the second last, he assumed command to readily draw clear. Unsurprisingly considering the strong pace set, the overall speed figure he posted ended up being above-average for a race of its kind and with a similar gallop more than likely to be the case here this afternoon, the lightly-raced and improving five-year-old has a golden opportunity to copy and paste his victory from 19 days ago.

OUT ON THE TEAR (NAP) (best price 11-10) ran out a pretty comfortable winner of this race last season and following two promising outings at a much higher level so far this term, Sam Ellwood’s gelding looks poised to strike again.

Looking badly in need of the run first time out at Worcester, the son of Arcadio was pitched into an even tougher heat at Sandown next time and although he ultimately came up a little short, he still came out of the race with great credit. Noted travelling well going down to the famous island fences at the Esher track, the seven-year-old unfortunately met all three obstacles on the wrong stride and, as a result, he came out of the back straight rather on the back foot. Despite rallying to the cause, he could only get within nine lengths of the eventual winner, One True King, but there’s certainly no disgrace in that result and in the context of today’s race, it certainly reads well enough. Back to one of his favourite venues, in much calmer waters and hailing from a yard in form, this would have to go down as a massive opportunity missed if he were to fluff his lines.

MERRY MISTRESS (best price 9-4) finally made the breakthrough over hurdles she’d been threatening for quite some time at Hereford last time out and there appears no obvious reason why David Dennis’ mare won’t build on that convincing display and go in again.

Third on her two previous outings this season since switching to new surroundings, the daughter of Getaway returned to the scene of her only other success strongly fancied to back up that bumper victory from 2020 and the market proved to be spot on in making her a 3-1 favourite. Always catching the eye going nicely in behind what was a decent pace for the grade, the five-year-old picked up the running leaving the back straight and from that point onwards, she pulled steadily clear to win by a comfortable five lengths. Alongside the useful overall time figure for a race of its kind, she also managed to run the last circuit a good deal quicker than anything else on the card - and that included the 116-rated Runasimi River – so based on that knowledge, even a rise to 104 shouldn’t have any sort of impact stopping her from repeating the dose under similar conditions.