Thursday Racing Tips from Steve Ryder

The David O’Meara trained Autumn Festival (best priced at 7/4) has shown huge improvements since tackling handicaps and he should run well once again. The three-year-old finished well beaten in his first three career starts but was an impressive 3 ¾ length winner on handicap debut at Redcar earlier this month.

Autumn Festival ran under a 6lb penalty at Pontefract but bumped into an improving 100/1 shot who won off a mark of 52. The selection pulled 2 ¼ lengths clear of the third and a further 1 ¾ lengths clear of the fourth (2nd and 3rd favourites) so it looks a strong piece of form with the correct horses in behind. The handicapper has raised Autumn Festival 3lbs for that run which is fair and I expect him to prove hard to beat in this race.

Trixster rates an unlikely runner in here following his 2nd placed effort yesterday but even if he was to take part in this contest I prefer the chances of the Tom Lacey trained San Augustin (best priced at 9/2). The six-year-old won at Leicester on his penultimate start in first time cheekpieces off a mark of 103 before running well last time at Exeter off a 3lb higher mark.

San Augustin finished three lengths behind the winner Carrigready last time at Exeter which was an improved performance and he is respected off 1lb higher despite going up in class from a 0-105 to 0-115 handicap.

The Ken Condon trained Swift Flight (best priced at 2/1) won a maiden over this course and distance last season and he should step forward from a good reappearance run at the Curragh last month. The four-year-old finished only 1 ½ lengths behind Laugh A Minute 26 days ago and the handicapper has only raised him 1lb for that run.

Swift Flight has shown in the past that he handles this heavy ground well with a 3rd at the Curragh on soft ground and a win over this course and distance on soft/heavy ground so these conditions should suit him perfectly. Blind Beggar looks the biggest danger on his stable debut for Ger Lyons but this will be his first run for 205 days so preference instead goes to the race-fit Swift Flight.