Andy Holding's Friday Racing Tips

SONG OF EARTH (best price 5-1) ran particularly well for a horse who predominately requires further than two miles at Clonmel last time out and with the form of the race given a big boost with the winner, Regina Dracones, scoring at Limerick the other day, Mags Mullins’ gelding has to be of some sort of interest here on his handicap debut. 

A winner of a heavy ground bumper and maiden hurdles respectively, it’s clear the son of Mahler enjoys extremely testing conditions and although the ground was on the soft side at the Powerstown Park venue, he probably could have done with it being even deeper. That said, he still caught the eye with the way he finished off his race from the back of the field and as we witnessed again two days ago, the winner is a devilishly difficult horse to pass. Now he appears to have finally found his feet over fences, he carries a bit more confidence in his ability to make the all-important transition from hurdles count, and with a step up to 2m7f also seen as a plus, the six-year-old appears to have more positives than negatives surrounding his chance.

ON THE PLATFORM (best price 6-1) did remarkably well to finish where he did after a potentially race-ending error at the third fence at Ludlow last time out and he’s fancied to back his previous effort at Bangor, for of which looks good in the context of today’s race. 

A smooth winner over hurdles at the Welsh venue three starts ago, John Groucott’s gelding made his chasing debut at the same track 164-days later and if it wasn’t for the well-handicapped Representing Bob, he would have obliged. With the winner and third going in since, it was easy to see whey he was well backed to confirm the form himself at the Shropshire venue 25 days ago, but unfortunately, he over-jumped and sprawled on landing early on and from that point onwards he was always fighting a losing battle. He did, however, make a brave fist of the thankless task to finish a respectable fourth and with today’s step up to three miles considered a potential source of improvement, the lightly-raced five-year-old will hopefully make his presence felt. 

TAP TAP BOOM (best price 3-1) ran an absolute screamer on his first run for 391 days in a hot handicap at Hereford and with plenty of heavy ground form in the book previously, including a decent one over today’s C&D. Alistair Ralph’s grey makes plenty of appeal. 

Good enough to contest Graded races when trained in France, the son of Foxwedge has been fairly lightly raced in recent times, but when he’s managed to show his face, he’s always run to a decent level. Runner-up to the useful Adicci in a competitive little handicap at Fontwell back in November 2020, the seven-year-old wasn’t seen out until reappearing in a Class 2 event 20 days ago and having travelled well throughout, he just couldn’t quite maintain his run all the way to the line. He did, however, manage to finish ahead of the likes of Ch’tibello, Seddon and Bold Plan and considering he was pretty much laughing at that trio for the majority of the journey, his performance carries plenty of clout. Likely to be all the better for that initial outing, a surprising bit of slack-cutting from the assessor means he now gets a chance to run in today’s slightly lower grade race and with conditions to suit, a big run looks in the offing.

COME ON GIRL (NAP) (best price 15-8) just found one too good on her latest start at Chelmsford, but the speed figures for the grade strongly suggest she did very little wrong, so Michael Appleby’s filly rates a solid choice to enhance her track stats of 124133. 

Successful in this race twelve months ago, the daughter of Outstrip hasn’t managed to regain the winning thread in nine subsequent starts, but if the evidence of her latest exploits is a fair guide, she looks ready to strike. In what turned out to be a strongly-run race at the Essex track, the four-year-old just got caught out of her ground as Champagne Supernova kicked for home and although she did her level best to reel in one of her main market rivals, the post just didn’t come in time. Clearly at her best when there’s plenty of pace involved, there are at least three front runners in today’s field that should ensure she gets a race run to suit, so while it’s always worth a note caution in playing in low-grade sprints on a regular basis, she appears the exception to the rule.