Tuesday Racing Tips from Andy Holding

BALLYMCGROATY BOY (best price 4/1) has shaped well on both his two starts so far this season despite running over trips shorter than ideal and now finally asked to race in a territory which is much more in-keeping with his overall profile, Nigel Hawke’s gelding should be capable of being fully effective at this sort of level.

Returning to the fray after the thick end of two years, connections were clearly taking a cautious approach with the son of Milan, not wanting to subject him to punishing experience and he was very much ridden accordingly in what turned out to be a decent contest for the grade at Ffos Las. Keeping on well late at the Welsh venue the nine-year-old virtually copy and pasted that performance on his latest start at Exeter over a shorter distance and with each run likely to have had the desired effect in terms of getting him back to peak fitness, there shouldn’t be too many excuses on that front today.

BEGIN THE LUCK (best price 7/2) has to count himself a shade unlucky to bump into a couple of progressive sorts on his last two starts but as there doesn’t appear to be anything in today’s field miles ahead of the assessor, the six-year-old can make the trip from his Dorset base a worthwhile one.

Runner-up to the useful Gerard Mentor at Exeter two starts ago, the son of Le Fou looked like going one place better over today’s C&D until the late swoop of Bashful (run well in defeat since) picked his pocket late on but, with the numbers revealing it wasn’t a bad race of its kind, his effort in defeat has to go down close to a career high.

Despite being slightly up in grade today, hopefully his current wellbeing and recent track form will count for plenty and he rates a solid-looking play in a race where not that many stand out on recent form.

Time may tell INFINITIVE (NAP) (best price 2/1) bumped into a pretty smart filly here last time out and with the numbers from that novice event going a long way to back up that viewpoint, Sir Michael Stoute’s filly can press home the thought she could be well-treated on handicap debut.

Although only four runners here 35 days ago, the blinkered-first-time La Ve Belle made sure the pace was very strong from the outset and when the pace-setter inevitably faded turning in the home straight, it was left for the big two in the betting to fight out the finish. Despite getting the worse of the argument close home, the daughter of Ulysses still managed to run one of the fastest circuit times recorded at this track since the new surface was re-laid, so to come out of that quality contest with an opening mark of just 75 seems fairly generous to say the least.

Unexposed and clearly fully effective on today’s surface, anything other than a bold show will have to go down as a massive disappointment.