Racing tips: Wonderwall looks well-treated on the flat off a handicap debut mark of 79

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It wasn't the ideal start to Day 1 of the St Leger Festival with Oisin Murphy deciding to run into the back of the only horse ahead of him on See The Fire and Golden Lyra was pulled up in her race, which was very strange.

Doncaster 1:50 – War Rooms 5/2 (1pt Bet365)

I'm not getting too heavily involved at Doncaster today, but War Rooms did catch my eye.

I was gutted that I let War Rooms go unbacked on debut over today's C&D as I was close to putting him up but decided against it as he was a debutante and it can go drastically wrong when doing that, but he went on to win and win in great style. This race is obviously a huge step up in grade now he's venturing into Class 1 territory on just his second run, but based on his win over the C&D I think he could play a key role in this race. The form of his win hasn't amounted to anything, but we know he handles the soft ground, which he should get today with a few mm of rain expecting to fall on the already soft ground, he handles the track and given the law of averages, he should improve from his debut run. He ran to an RPR of 91 on his debut, which is a fairly strong standard to run to on a horse's first run, and that RPR puts him ahead of a lot of the horses in this field today.

He debut didn't entirely go to plan, he was slow out of the gates, was green and outpaced but when the penny dropped he started to motor and slice through the field like a hot knife through butter, eventually winning by 4.75L. He is going to be best on soft ground, as his half-brother Herring Island was a winner twice on soft ground from his four career runs, and chances are that War Rooms will need further at some point later this year/early next year, but I think his strong stamina will be an advantage if the ground remains soft as it will be tough on the legs of these young horses and he might be able to outstay them.

Chester 3:20 – Wonderwall 2/1 (1pt PaddyPower)

It's a bit strange to see Wonderwall on the flat, having been very lightly raced over the jumps in recent years, but I can see why they are running him on the flat because he is clearly on a low mark.

A handicap rating of 79 is definitely low for Wonderwall who is a horse who has shown plenty of ability over jumps in every code. He was a very good bumper horse, which saw him finish 3rd behind two classy bumper horses in a Class 1 race at Ascot back in 2020. He was 7th in the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham in the same season. He was rated 134 over hurdles and was unlucky not to win a Listed race when he fell at the last hurdle. He has made just the one chase appearance, but he was heavily gambled in that day from large odds in a Grade 2, he wasn't terrible, but still ran to an RPR of 139. Based on his exploits over the jumps I firmly believe he can win a few races on the flat, and especially now since he is running over a longer distance.

This is his first time running over 2m, having been running over 10f, which was clearly to get a handicap mark so that they can make a good run of it and win a few races. Saying that, he did run well over 10f, much better than I thought he would, he was 2nd on his two first starts and bumped into a couple of progressive horses, so I think the form is solid. He was poor last time out on the AW, but he might not be suited to that surface, and he looked more at home on the turf, producing RPRs of 85. I think he will stay 2m on the flat, he has run well in 2m bumpers, they are completely different to 2m flat races as they are run at much different speeds, but I think he will stay given the fact he has won over 2m 5f over hurdles.

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