Tuesday Horse Racing Tips from Andy Holding

ROMILDA (NAP) (best price 5/2) left the impression she would have gone very close to landing a competitive handicap with anything like a clear run at Wolverhampton last time and with today’s contest not too dissimilar in terms of quality, Willam Haggas’ filly is strongly fancied to press home that viewpoint on her sixth career start.

Unable to cope with heavy ground on turf at Nottingham previously, the daughter of Kingman was held up in the rear of the pack on just her second start on the all-weather and noted going well as anything turning for home, it’s at that juncture when the nightmare began. Going for an ambitious run between two fading rivals, she got her path blocked constantly inside the final two furlongs and, as a result, she was left finishing a close-up fourth with plenty of gas left in the tank.

Despite this bad bout of misfortune, it’s worth pointing out she still managed to run numbers significantly quicker than today’s favourite Light Speed, who ran over a furlong shorter at the Midland venue the day before and with the promise of even more to come over this sort of trip (dam stayed 1m6f well), it’s just a question of whether she gets the breaks at the right moment rather than questioning her having the ability to win a race of this nature.

Both SEA ME DANCE (best price 9/2) and ARTISAN DANCER (best price 7/2) left the impression they are worth keeping on side following their 1-2 at Wolverhampton last time out and because they are so hard to split, having a few quid on the pair against the field is the safest policy.

The former just gained the edge at the Dunstall Park venue but it was largely due to the fact that the daughter of Sea The Stars was the better positioned of the pair as the main players struck for home. In what became a dash for the line from three out, Sean Woods’ filly exhibited a smart turn of foot to seal the deal in the closing stages and even though she was being pegged back by her old rival late on, she had enough of a buffer to withstand the challenge.

As is often the case in these types of races, especially at today’s track, they tend to go slow for the first mile at the very least and if that turns out to be the case, her change of gear at the business end will be invaluable.

As it turned out, the latter could have done with a stronger gallop to allow his stamina to come to the fore, but either way, it was still a tremendous effort by Charlie Johnston’s inmate considering where he was going down the back straight. Seen to much better effect over today’s C&D back in September, a return to the Surrey venue is seen as a welcome boost to his claims.