Sunday’s Racing Tips – Firebird can make it three on the bounce at Naas

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The Ebor York festival was an up and down festival in terms of results, but it's back to normality tomorrow with some poor Sunday racing!

Burdett Road was ridden prominently as I expected under De Sousa but he ran too keenly throughout which seems to be his downfall. Mr Lightside plugged on in his race but the winner was away and gone and never looked like stopping under Oisin Murphy.

Enfjaar didn't look 100% right to my eyes. His head was constantly hanging to one side and looked like a tough ride for Jack Mitchell, so I'm willing to give him another try next time he runs. I actually thought that Summerghand was given a pretty poor ride by Oisin. He seemed to have plenty of horse underneath him but was content with holding onto him, but at that point, the race was already done and dusted. Could be pocket talk, but I think he should've been placed at the very least.

Massive shout out to Attacanter Racing over at the Lucky 15 thread who had a belter of a day yesterday with a 16/1 winner and three placed horses at 16/1, 14/1 and 20/1. A 50p eachway lucky 15 bet on those 4 selections paid just over £400 which is a top drawer result. 

Cairnzy's Tips

Sergeant Wilko 2/1 – Goodwood 3.00

The track at Goodwood will have a bit of cut in it on Sunday, and finding horses who handle conditions will be key in my opinion. The horses that stood out to me were Sergeant Wilko and Tirac but I opted to take the Kingpower Racing-owned Sergeant Wilko who is on a bit of roll this season with form figures of 1411 since returning from a break back in March.

My selection has been campaigned over both 5f and 6f but it appears that the 6f is more his trip having won three times over it already this season. Notably his sole defeat of this season came at Thirsk, when connections opted to drop him back to 5f for some reason. There doesn't look to be much pace on offer in this field which could play into the hands of Sergeant Wilko who has won from the front in each of his wins this term. I'm hoping Oisin Murphy can pop him out and go from the front again as he could be tough to catch, especially at Goodwood, a course that tends to favour those who go from the front in my opinion.

Main dangers look to be Tirac who I've already mentioned. Tirac will handle the conditions better than most and at the prices he looks the main danger ahead of Amazonian Dream who will also handle conditions and comes into this contest in good order with recent form figures of 13122.

Midnight Gun 9/2 – Goodwood 2.25

This looks wide open, and you can make solid claims for plenty in this field. My old friend Orbaan is out again and Rizz joked earlier that I would stick him up as a selection for 600th time. I'll be honest, I was tempted too, but he's let me down too many times in the past, but with that said, if he wins blame Rizz!!

The talk seems to be surrounding the William Haggas trained Godwinson who shares favouritism with recent Glorious Goodwood winner Toimy Son at 4/1. Godwinson will enjoy the conditions in this race and he brings some solid form into this contest with his close second in the Spring Cup at Newbury and most recently with a good fourth in a competitive Class 2 handicap at York. Toimy son arrives after winning the Golden Mile at Glorious Goodwood which is probably the best form on offer. Toimy Son carries top weight in this contest which will be a tough ask but he should be bang there given the run doesn't come too soon.

Midnight Gun was the horse I finally decided on and he's not far off favouritism himself at 9/2, which tells you all you need to know about how open this race is. Midnight Gun was originally trained by the inform Ed Walker team but switched hands to Hamad Al Jehani at the end of last month. He's only had the one run for his new trainer which came at Glorious Goodwood three weeks ago in a Class 2 handicap which saw him finish half a length back in third in a tightly bunched finish. Prior to the Goodwood run he was bang in form for Ed Walker, winning his previous two outings before switching hands to Al Jehani. He remains a lightly raced horse at the age of 3 and with his progressive-looking profile he can make his presence felt against some of these more exposed horses. Rossa Ryan gets a leg up on my selection for the first time, taking over from James Doyle who rode Midnight Gun last time out.

Rizzel's Tips

Firebird 3/1 – Naas 3.07

You will struggle to find a bigger fan of Paddy Twomey than me, I think he is a wonderful trainer and does some amazing things with the horses he has. Over the recent years he has been getting more horses to run and he has shown what he can do with them, with his strike rates speaking for themselves. He is a shrewd trainer and won't just chuck a horse into a better-graded race unless he seriously thinks they can come and land the spoils, and for me, I think Firebird has a nice opportunity of getting a Group 3 under her belt.

Twomey is very good at buying horses, spotting potential and then turning them into Class 1 horses, especially fillies. He's done it on a number of occasions in recent years, and Firebird looks to be another who can follow that trend. She is 2/2 for the yard after coming from Rebecca Menzies' yard. They've let her settle into the yard and not rushed her into a similar class race as today, with one win in a maiden and the other in a conditions race, but on both occasions, she has produced RPRs in the 90s, most recently 99. Obviously, today's race is a much tougher assignment, but with just three runs under her belt and with the number she has put up without being asked for maximum effort, you'd like to think she can continue to improve on those figures.

I don't think this race is as strong as what I might appear on paper. There are a lot of 90-rated fillies in this race, but Nighteyes put a few of them in their place last time over today's C&D, so you can confidently say that the winner is one to look out for, and maybe the 4-year-old, Dance Night Andday who got a troubled passage behind Nighteyes, but other than that, nothing else really stands out. Firebird is drawn in Stall 2, and that's normally a decent place to be drawn at Naas as long as she can get a good start from the gates, which should remove the ear of being boxed in on the rails.

The yard continues to be in tremendous form, operating at a 26% SR this year and they are 2/3 at this track this year, with Firebird claiming one of those victories, which makes me think they came to test the waters and see how she manoeuvred on the track and she if she handled it, with today's race being a target.

Charlotte's Web 5/2  – Goodwood 1.50

A wise man once said don't back the favourite in the opener, similar to never back the early kickoff, but that's not enough to put me off from backing Charlotte's Web.

I stuck up Queen Of Soldiers in the race Charlotte's Web finished third in last week, and if I was on her that day I'd have no hair left as she got repeatedly cut off on multiple occasions when cruising on the bridle, so it was quite miraculous to finished as close as she did. Based on that performance, I think it's fair to say she is a decent horse and her opening mark of 78, though her mark means nothing in this non-handicap race, isn't a true representation of her ability. She must be a horse connections think a decent amount of as she has been fancied in the market on every run so far. She was 3rd/11 on debut, then finished second on good ground, which I don't think is her cup of tea, and then last time out she just got no run whatsoever.

She isn't proven on ground this soft, but ran well on good to soft on debut, and her pedigree screams out soft ground, so I'm fairly confident that this is the ground she wants. She is by Night Of Thunder and is out of a Lope De Vega mare. Both sides of the pedigree have produced soft ground lovers, mainly Night Of Thunder who has a 18% SR with his offspring on soft ground with the likes of Suesa, Highfield Princess and Isaach Shelby being some of his top progeny, all producing their best performances on soft ground.

There are some decent fillies in this race, but the current form I'd have my selection at the top, so it's not a surprise to see her at the top of the market at the time of writing, but based on how the market is moving she might drift out and not go off as favourite. There has been some interesting money for the newcomer Estrange who was a 425,00gns purchase and is also by Night Of Thunder, so you'd expect her to enjoy the ground today as well. She has a very nice pedigree, but based on Charlotte's Web's latest performance and with progression likely to come today, Estrange would probably have to run to a mark in the high 80s or low 90s to win this race, which can be done on debut, but it's a big ask.

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