Racing tips: Haldon Hill looks a shoo-in for the hat trick at Exeter

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Easter Monday was a good day, but it was moments away from being a sensational day.

Asterion Forlonge was very game when winning as a 1.5pt win selection, and Gevrey was seconds away from winning the Irish National at an SP of 28/1 until the JP McManus horse grabbed him late on.

Pontefract 2:00 – Tidal Storm 12/1 (0.5pt ew)

Pontefract becomes a weird track when the rain comes, as they often track across to the far rail as that's normally where the better ground is, but with this being an Apprentice race, they might just stick to the normal rail, so having a low draw is still quite key.

Tidal Storm was my pick in a very tricky race, but I think this track and soft ground will play to his strengths. He had some decent form as a 2yo when finishing 4th/10 at Newbury which has produced some very nice types. The winner is currently rated 89, and the runner-up and third are both rated in the early 100s, so it was not a bad effort at all to finish as close as he did to those ahead of him. This horse hasn't been seen on testing ground since having raced on quicker ground on turf and mostly on the AW, he did grab a win over 12f at Kempton off a mark of 68 where he stayed on strongly and looked as if the further they went the more he was getting ahead. Today's trip is still 12f, but on testing ground and on a stiff uphill track like Pontefract it will put emphasis on stamina, which this has in his pedigree and based on his runs to date.

He had a brief spell over hurdles, which didn't work out too great, but the positive to take away from that is that he will be fitter than a fair amount of these, having been in training over the winter and only racing at the start of February. He has had a small break, but he will be well ahead in terms of preparation.

Pontefract 3:30 – King Of Bavaria 4/1 (1pt)

This is a great little race for a Tuesday at Pontefract, full of some great handicap sprinters including some old legends like Copper Knight, Justanotherbottle, Dakota Gold & Arecibo. I won't be siding with any of those, instead, I'm backing King Of Bavaria.

Michael Appleby is the best trainer who gets the best out of horses he obtains from other yards, the amount of times he gets a horse and improves them by plenty is incredible. He has a tough job on his hands to do it with this horse, having gotten him from Aidan O'Brien's yard, but he has made a bright start to his career at Mick's stable. He has run some good races on the AW over the winter, with the recent 2nd to Diligent Harry probably being the highlight, with that horse winning at Newcastle in the sprint on Champions Day. This horse is capable of running big races in nice handicaps over 6f, so the drop in trip might not seem ideal, but on a stiff track like Pontefract on testing ground, his stamina will be key to running on late past horses who are tired.

Mick Appleby was questioned what is his horse to follow from his yard for the rest of the season and he gave this lad as his answer, that's not my reason for backing him, but it's a nice confidence booster going into the race.

He is drawn wide, which is obviously not ideal, but with plenty of pace on offer in this race it might favour those who come from off the pace. Fingers crossed he gets a clear passage!

I must say that Ey Up It's Maggie is the horse to be wary of, off a low weight and was third in this race last year off a higher mark.

Exeter – Haldon Hill 9/4 (1pt)

Backing horses who arrive in good form with a couple of wins under their belt, arriving for the hat trick sounds great, but it does put doubt into your mind whether they have reached their ceiling handicap mark and the handicapper has gotten their grips on them. I don't think that is true with Haldon Hill, his last two runs have been great to watch (apart from last time, as I tipped the 2nd horse) as he looks like a horse at the top of his game at the age of 10.

The handicapper has gone quite easy on this horse with just a 5lb increase in the weights, and based on that I think he has a very good chance of winning this race today and the odds of 9/4, although they are short for an 11 runner handicap, I was expecting much shorter. He beat a very well-handicapped winner, in my opinion, in Mumbo Jumbo last time around. Though the runner-up hadn't won in his career, he has put up some good efforts which had produced some good form lines, as well as he had a very capable 7lb claimer on him that day too, and Haldon Hill managed to put him away and pull well clear of the others in the field.

He is versatile on any ground, 3 of his 4 career wins have been on ground with some sort of soft in the description but when he went to Ffos Las and cantered home on good ground, that cemented my opinion that he is definitely the one to beat in this race. Exeter's ground is currently good to soft, but will probably dry out a bit come the start time, but that shouldn't be an issue.

Victor Dartnall has gone under the radar this season, he doesn't have the number of horses he used to have, but he is doing a tremendous job with what he does have. He has had 6 wins from 30 runners, equaling a 20% SR, with 3 of those wins being from Haldon Hill alone!

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