Monday Racing Tips from Andy Holding

DARK KRIS (best price 5/1) has a bit to find with River Chorus based on their clash at Wolverhampton three days ago, but with the return to a mile and his favourite track likely to close the gap between the pair, it’s not impossible he could overturn the form. 

Drawn in the coffin box of the 11-strong field at the Dunstall Park venue, the son of Dark Angel was forced to race wide for pretty much of the seven-furlong journey so it came as little surprise he failed to make impact at the business end against many who had their energy preserved in a more efficient fashion. 

Often ridden in a more positive fashion, unfortunately today’s pilot got a rush of blood to the head with her mount here two starts ago but providing she’s learnt from those valuable lessons a month ago, the combination has a decent chance of making amends. 

MORSE (best price 9/4) shaped with a huge amount of promise on his debut at Leopardstown towards the backend of the Flat season and with expected improvement to come, Charles Weld’s colt is fancied to play a much more prominent role second time around. 

Sent off at 100/1 at the Dublin track, a very slow start quickly added an extra nought on the end of his odds and he was probably still trading at the ceiling price on the exchange as the runner turned for home. However, from that point onwards, the son of Ruler Of The World made up a huge amount of ground in the latter stages and by the time he’d hit the line, he managed to pass 12 of his rivals to finish a creditable fifth. 

Clearly a horse with quite a bit of talent based on his backend work 51 days ago and providing connections have worked sufficiently on certain aspects of his game in the interim, he can take high rank here this afternoon. 

HOT DAY (NAP) (best price 9/4) represents a stable who have struck a nice bit of form in the last few weeks and following an encouraging run himself here five days ago, the son of Adaay can play his own part in keeping up the good work for the Lambourn handler. 

Drawn in stall 12 in a similar race over today’s C&D, the general feeling – backed up by his position in the market – was he would struggle to get involved and although that pre-race view partly came true, he did more than enough to offer positive vibes for the future. Despite being forced wide off the home turn, Stan Moore’s gelding ran on takingly all the way down the straight to finish a respectable third and with the time figure speaking favourably of the race in question, his performance deserves upgrading. 

Housed in a better stall today and with Luke Morris on board seen as a big plus, the four-year-old rates a strong choice to get back to winning ways.