Andy Holding is back with two tip for today's racing action.
16:55 Clonmel
BONNIE KELLIE (best price 4/1) was still bang in contention and seemingly going well enough to suggest she would have been a major player but for unseating her pilot at the third last at Roscommon last time out and providing all is well in her world since then, she can make amends at a track where she has gone well in the past.
Having her first run for 151 days, Sam Curling’s mare didn’t seem under too much stress rounding the home turn despite her absence and although it’s impossible to tell whether she would have won but for untimely exit, the chances are she would have had a huge say in the outcome at the very least.
A dual winner on soft/heavy ground and with a career record over fences at today’s track that reads 6422, the six-year-old’s high cruising speed should allow her to put another positive spin on those stats.
17:41 Ludlow
NIBRAS GOLD (best price 5/1) is running up the sort of sequence of placed efforts that is bound to be off-putting for many, but he does seem to have his heart in the right place, and he is afforded another chance to gain a well deserved and overdue success.
Runner-up on his three previous starts, David Pipe’s gelding took up his usual front running role in his bid to go one place better at Exeter last time out and for nine tenths of the 2m2f journey it looked like he was going to finally snap the hoodoo. Unfortunately for him and his supporters, he was picked off in the latter stages by the patiently ridden Thahab Ifraj and he ended up having to play a minor role but not for the first time he had posted a decent speed figure in defeat.
More to the point, despite his race being the last one on the card and on the worst of the ground (rained during the afternoon), his numbers came out favourably compared to one of today’s main rivals, Jeudidee, who took the novice hurdle two hours earlier, so armed with that data, he rates a decent each-way alternative to the favourite around a track that will suit.
