Andy Holding's Friday Racing Tips

NUBLE (best price 6-4) beat the ‘right’ horse in the shape of the potentially well-handicapped Sea Of Charm over today’s C&D last time out and with the strong possibility of even more to come from Marco Botti’s in-form mare, she’s fancied to complete the hat trick. 

A snug winner of a competitive handicap at Wolverhampton previously, the hood and tongue-tie combination clearly worked its magic and despite it not always being the case, she managed to back up that performance on her next outing with the same implements in place. Always well positioned in what turned out to be a generously run affair for the grade, the daughter of Brilliant Speed looked like she may have to settle for second best as the favourite swept to the front over two furlongs out, but in finding the most for pressure inside the final furlong, she eventually worn down her main market rival. Clocking a healthy set of figures at the Surrey venue, the five-year-old mare clearly arrives her right at the top of her game and even though today’s contest has the potential to become a little messy, she’s still taken to overcome any such vagaries. 

ROAD WARRIOR (best price 9-2), apart from when he pulled up on his first visit to today’s venue almost two years ago, has a record here that reads 2621131 and with the latest of that sequence rating close to a career-best effort, Rebecca Menzies’ gelding can provide her in-form handler with another notable winner. 
An honest sort who always puts in a decent shift, his attacking style of racing is tailor-made for this sharp track and that forward-going nature has served him well on more than one or two occasions. Not quite good enough to fend off the rapidly-improving Sounds Russian two starts ago, the son of Fair Mix found the slightly less taxing opposition over a shorter trip more to his liking on Boxing Day and on the evidence of that solid effort, there’s no reason why he couldn’t cope with another slight raise in grade on his return to the Co Durham venue.

REWIRED (best price 11-4) was involved in one of the best juvenile hurdles run so far this season based on the time figures and with the strong possibility of Dr Newland’s gelding not having the misfortune of bumping into another Iceo here today, he rates a confident choice to stake a claim for either one of the two big four-year-old races at the Festival in two months’ time (more probably the Boodles). 

Although he couldn’t land any sort of discernible blow on the eventual winner, he did pretty well to finish second given the circumstances of how the race panned out and with himself pulling well clear of the rest of the field, his performance for a first-time starter over hurdles – in a race of that magnitude time-wise – has to go down as a cracking beginning. Likely to be better positioned here this afternoon with that vital experience under his belt and given how well he stays, the son of Power looks destined to be fighting it out for top honours in the latter stages. 

HOLLY HARTINGO (NAP) (best price 7-4) made a terrific start to her career under rules at Ludlow several weeks ago, in the process, taking the scalp of many well-established mares, and with the time figure, she posted strongly suggesting there was no fluke about her performance a repeat will make Alistair Ralph’s mare very hard to beat. 

Runner-up in an Irish point-to-point back in May, the daughter of Well Chosen returned to action after a 234-day break in a race that contained the likes of previous winners Nextdoortoalice, Malaita, Lady Of The Night, plus the well-fancied Miss Fairfax, so to come out of the battle in the final half a mile against many rated close to the 120 bracket has to go down as a superb effort. Not only was it a fairly classy performance, but she also showed a tenacious attitude in the closing stages and with connections recognising that she was seemingly well suited by a flat, right-handed track, it’s nice to see her kept in her comfort zone by being asked to race at an almost identical circuit.