Friday’s Racing Tips – Back Musical Slave at Fontwell

Rizzel's Guard Your Dreams was a winner by the smallest of margins. It's always a relief when you're on the winning side of a photo finish, especially as close as the one Guard Your Dreams won (There was a 25p Rule 4 on this win).

The chase debutante didn't jump with fluency and was out to his right on a lot of his fences, so for him to win despite clearly not being at his best was great to see. Rizzel's other runner of the day, Don Hollow was a NR.

Machete Beach was very disappointing, coming off the bridle sooner than expected and finding very little under pressure as they entered down the straight. It's still early days for Machete Beach, but he needs to bounce back next time as that was an extremely under par performance.

Cairnzy's Tips

Allonsy 7/1 – 3.57 Ascot

I'm going to take a punt on the Ralph Beckett-trained Allonsy for my sole selection on Friday as she appears the clear value play in this contest at 7/1. It's a pity we only have the two places on offer as I probably would have advised each way to cover my stake, but given we only have the two places, it'll be a straight win advised this time around.

My selection doesn't bring the best form to this contest despite winning her last four races but she has been incredibly progressive this season and remains completely unexposed over this sort of distance. Allonsy started off this term with an OR of only 65 but recent form figures of 2331111 have earned her an OR now of 83, and I'm not fully convinced that she's hit her ceiling yet.

The ground at Ascot is running heavy, and the testing conditions could find a few of these out during the course of this race. There are a few horses in this race with form-on testing conditions, Subsequent being one of them. Subsequent won on soft two starts back at Newmarket when winning a Class 3 handicap by just over 1L. Subsequent also finished runner up behind Master Builder on soft back in May of this year, form which now reads particularly well as Master Builder recently boosted the form when winning a competitive Class 2 Handicap at Haydock. Allonsy also has form on similar ground, it may not be as strong on paper as compared to Subsequent but notably her Dam was a Group 2 winner of soft and there is optimism to believe she too can relish these testing conditions.

Allonsy has tended to be ridden prominently from the front in her races, and I fully expect similar tactics to be used this time around. Only five go to post, so the race could become tactical and it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if Rossa Ryan went forward and tried to make all.

Rizzel's Tips

Musical Slave 3/1 – Fontwell 2.00

It's getting to that time of year when there is more and more jumps meetings on, and on back-to-back days I've opted for a bet on a jumps card.

This five-runner race is an interesting one if they all turn up at peak fitness it would be a cracking little race. However, I get the impression that this is a pipe-opener for a couple and Musical Slave might be able to make the most of that.

I get a sneaky feeling that Wick Green will be turning up to Cheltenham for a crack at the amateur's race that he finished 3rd/19 of last year. This year he is currently 4lbs lower if they went straight for that race, but that could obviously go a pound or two lower based on how he runs in this contest today, so I think you can be relatively confident of ruling him out despite him obviously being on an attractive handicap mark. Sublime Heights is a strange horse as he has a decent strike rate over fences, mostly at Plumpton but he won on his final start of last season at Chepstow and is only 1lb higher for that win, so he has to be respected based on that, but he has been very inconsistent over the last 12 months and off a decent layoff he can be watched. Galloping Pride is still unexposed with just three chase starts. He has some good form over the summer with two runner-up finishes, but he was beaten by an older horse falling down the handicapper the time before last, which is what my selection, Musical Slave is, so he is vulnerable yet again. If Marettimo came into this with a run I'd probably chance him for this race as he always runs well when his mark floats around this rating, but his record when fresh isn't good and this is his first start in 499 days.

That left me with Musical Slave who hasn't been the most consistent horse over the last couple of years. However, he is an 11-year-old now, so age can be an excuse for that. Last time out at Newton Abbot he ran a good race, and given the horses ahead of him were coming into that race with a win or wins next to their form line, it was a good run and definitely a point in the right direction in terms of his form. He is slightly worse off at the weights today even with the handicapper dropping him 1lb, as the jockey claims 4lb less than he did last time out, so he 3lb worse off, but a repeat performance could see him tough to beat.

Trolley Boy 11/2 – Fontwell 3.45

It might not be the best of ideas going against Nigel Twiston-Davies at the moment as he is one of the most in-form jumps trainers in the UK, but I am going to as I think Trolley Boy has to have a great chance of winning this race if he is ready on his first start in 460 days.

Don't get me wrong, Stream Of Stars has to be respected in this race and how Nigel Twiston-Davies and the team as the stable managed to get this horse winning after 900+ days off the track is a miracle. He went well through the race and managed to stick on when the runner-up had nothing much to give. Though it was a big run off a big layoff, I have doubts about the form as the runner-up has never been a 2m 3f horse and has always had his best form over 2m, so in hindsight, it's not a surprise that he managed to outstay that horse. As for the others in the field, I think West To The Bridge needs bottomless ground to be effective at the age of 11. Enthused is in great form but has never raced this race and Feel The Pinch has been kept to shorter trips and gets a very inexperienced 10lb claimer on board, which I don't know much about.

To me, Trolley Boy was the obvious horse in this race, even with the doubts over the trip and the time away from the track. Neil Mulholland has been getting a fair amount of winners recently, in both codes. He has been partnering up with James Bowen in recent years, with the pair operating at a 30% SR when teaming up, with 4/17 coming from this season. James is the most in-form jockey at the moment in the UK, with 9 wins from the last 17 rides (53%, which includes two for Neil Mulholland).

The time away from the track isn't as much as a concern as it would normally be as Trolley Boy has won off a break three times before, with wins off 63 days, 215 days and 118 days off the track, with a further second on racecourse debut and another second from 107 days off the track, so it's fair to say he performs very well when fresh. We haven't seen him since running well in a Class 2 race at Cartmel last summer. The form of that looks solid as the runner-up is now rated lbs higher and managed to win on his next two starts, as well as the winner being 8lbs higher with a further two more wins since.

The step up in trip looks like it could suit quite nicely as he has been running on strongly in competitive handicaps over shorter.

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