Friday’s Racing Tips – The beautifully bred Secret Force will have too much for the maidens at Lingfield

Cairnzy wasn't able to hit the ground running at the start of 2025 with Come On John running well in defeat but wasn't up to the same level as the winner. 

Come On John had a great chance of winning prior to the start of the race, but he was far too keen throughout and you can't afford to do that unless you're a stone ahead of the handicapper. Fire Dancer, on the other hand, wasn't at the races. His jumping wasn't the greatest and he just looked laboured, falling behind the main group three from home.

Rizzel's tips

Musselburgh's jumps card has an early inspection due to having parts of the track being frozen. I live in the North West of England, and it was very cold here overnight, so given it's even colder in Scotland, I don't hold much hope for that card being on, so I've turned my sites to the AW action.

Gogo Yubari 9/2 – Lingfield 12.45

The AW action doesn't get my juices flowing over the winter months, but I have been watching it whilst not doing anything else, and I caught Gogo Yubari the other day who ran a nice race from the front at Wolverhampton, and I think a repeat performance in this race which lacks pace could be a nice opportunity.

Normally when I predict a poor pace, they all decide to do the opposite of their past and go from the front. Hopefully, this is not the case as I think Gogo Yubari could secure a soft lead in this race from stall 5, or worst case scenario, follow Pop Dancer around the track, stalking him around the outside before pouncing when turning for home. The classier horses in this race are all hold up horses, so given there's not much pace on offer, the race should hopefully not fall into their hands.

Gogo Yubari is a two times course and distance winner, coming off marks of 55 and 61, so he has something to prove in this better quality race off a mark of 67, but as I mentioned before, he ran well last time out and now gets Morgan Cole doing the steering, taking off 5lbs in the process. Dylan Cunha is operating at a 40% SR over the last fourteen days (2 winners from 5 runners), which is always a good sign.

Hebridean Nomad 8/1 – Lingfield 1.15

This is a tight race with opportunities for success for a lot, but I thought it was worth siding with the unexposed horse in the field with Hebridean Nomad in the hope that there's more to come off his mark of 73 and will have come on for his run last time out after a big absence.

The Andrew Balding horse who is now a 4-year-old has only seen the racetrack three times, which shows there has been problems in his short career to date. However, in the time we have seen him, he has run well, including grabbing a win on his second run at Kempton. He was not seen for 433 days but came back with a very good run. He wasn't fancied in the market, going off at odds of 14/1, so connections evidently weren't expecting him to win, but he showed enough by finishing 4th/11, 3L behind the winner to suggest he will be winning races in the future.

He has had a 31 day break since, but returns for his handicap debut off 1lb lower and over 2f further. His pedigree suggests this step up in trip will suit, being by Ulysses and out of a mare who stayed this trip. He is good value in this race, and I'm happy enough to take a play on then nose rather than the usual EW bet.

Secret Force 2/1 – Lingfield 3.15

It's often dodgy going for horses in races like this where the vast majority are unraced or have raced just once, as you open yourself up to being beaten by an improver or a good horse on debut. Normally, it is a race I wouldn't participate in, but Secret Force's pedigree is enough for me to think he can seriously improve on his debut run.

Godolphin have some of the best-bred horses in the world, outside of Ballydoyle. This horse is another lovely bred colt by Frankel and out of Duneflower who is sired by Dubawi and was a Listed winner and two times Group 3 placed, so the debut run of Secret Force where he ran to an RPR of 66 has to be left behind with a pedigree of that ilk.

His debut run didn't go to plan as much as they'd have liked to as he wasn't positioned the best at Lingfield due to a slow start, and around Lingfield that can be very unforgiving, so him running on at the finish and being an eyecatcher showed that he does have ability and we'll likely see that in the future as he progresses through the ranks. However, with that experience under his belt and being drawn in Stall 1 he has the perfect opportunity to use what he learnt last time out and bounce out, get a prominent position and if he achieves that in the early stages, he could be difficult to beat under Dougie Costello.

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