Thursday’s Racing Tips – The trip to Epsom looks to be a profitable one for Jason Hart backers

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Unfortunately, Wednesday was a blank day with neither Cairnzy nor Rizzel managing to land a blow with any of their selections.

Ignac Lamar was weak in the market throughout the day and didn't manage to land a dent. He didn't run terribly, and I think being held up wasn't the best place to be as the horses who finished in the top four were all chasing the leader, so it looks like the pace did hold up well, making it difficult for the closers.

Vision Of Hope was too keen throughout the race and bombed out, but as Rizzel mentioned in the write-up, that horse is very inconsistent and her being keen wasn't enough to back up that heavy of a defeat after travelling the way she did.

Cairnzy has been ill throughout the day so Rizzel has his selections for Thursday's racing, with Cairnzy hopefully returning for Friday's tips.

Rizzel's Tips

Red Mirage 4/1 – Epsom 2.35

It is a rare runner for the father and son training combination of John & Sean Quinn at Epsom with their horse Red Mirage, who is their sole runner at the Surrey-based track, and it seems like they've timed it well with the soft ground which is what Red Mirage enjoys the most.

John & Sean have only been a combination since the start of this year and they haven't sent too many runners from their North Yorkshire base to Epsom. They have had six runners at the track this season, which has resulted in one win and a further three being placed. That's not an amazing strike rate, but it reads better from when John was the sole trainer on the licence. John previously had 16 winners from 81 runners at Epsom, with a further 16 being placed in the top three, which recorded a profit of +41.70 to £1 level stakes, so it does go to show that when they send their runners to the track, they tend to do very well and you can't discount their horses at any price which the profit supports.

Red Mirage does have a tough task on his hands with the burden of shouldering the top weight of 10st 1lbs, but thankfully, today's conditions should be right up his street. This season he has run four times, with him kicking off the season with a win on soft ground at Catterick, followed up by some decent efforts at Leicester and Chester. Throughout his career he has always taken a liking to speedy tracks, especially Chester and Goodwood which has been the venues for his best performances, with RPRs of 99 at both of those tracks. Goodwood is virtually a right-handed carbon copy of Epsom, with a downhill straight for the final 5f, and Chester is all about speed, so I think he will love Epsom as it is the home of the fastest 5f in the world.

The 90-day break isn't a concern as he has put in some of his best efforts on the back of a break. He has won fresh on four occasions if you include his debut run, so it seems like the best thing to do and combining that with the long distance they are travelling, I'm expecting a big run.

Between Me And U 9/2 – Epsom 5.22

God knows what Michael Herrington has been feeding his horses in recent weeks, but his yard has been flying for the best part of a month, with three winners in the last fortnight from eight runners, so his runner instantly caught the eye, especially considering it is his first ever runner at Epsom since he took out his training licence back in 2009!

Michael has always done well when obtaining horses from other yards so it wasn't a total surprise when Between Me And U hosed in on stable debut at Wolverhampton a week ago. His handicap mark had dropped from 73 from to 61 from when Alice Haynes got him from Ivan Furtado's yard, so if finding the spark again he was a well-handicapped horse to strike and he did that on stable debut. He has shown a decent level of form for this grade of race when trained by Ivan Furtado, being placed off a mark of 67 before winning on the next attempt, so you'd have to say that he can still do damage off today's mark of 67 given he has already won from this rating once before. Based on last time out you've got to say he is a horse who could easily cope with the 6lb penalty he has for today's race as he won by 3.25L on the back of a 66-day break, and if they want to employ the same tactics of running from the front, Epsom is a great track to demonstrate it on.

Soft ground conditions shouldn't be a problem for him as he did win at Ffos Las for Ivan Furtado on good to soft and he did run a good race when finishing last of three on soft ground when trained by Alice Haynes, with the longer trip likely being the problem that day.

The booking of Jason Hart is noticeable, and I'm hoping he does have a good day as he is on my first selection, Red Mirage. But, the fact he has decided to stick around for the last race of the day to ride Between Me And U does give me confidence that he is a well-handicapped horse as Jason could have easily gone back up North for an early finish after finishing his duties for his stable of John & Sean Quinn. Jason has ridden for Michael in the past, with a strike rate of 16% with 9 wins from 55 rides, so it's not a random jockey booking.

Valsharah 25/1 EW three places – Doncaster 4.40

My oddball pick of the day goes to Valsharah who seems to be a weirdly pitched in by Charles Hills in this contest.

Charles hasn't had the best of times this year, he's been operating at a much lower strike rate than normal, but he has managed to get a couple of winners in recent weeks, which is always nice to see when backing a runner from a yard. Connections of Valsharah must rate him to be much better than what he has shown on the track and he must be showing much better signs at home as this is a very tough race to be launched into off the back of being rated 69 from his first four runs. Obviously, the prize money of £18k to the winner is a nice pot to land, but I cannot believe for one minute that they'd chuck him in this race if they firmly believed he couldn't win it as a good run could potentially blow his handicap mark by a good few pounds.

I thought that the booking of Silvestre De Sousa was one worth noting. SDS can ride low weights, but his lowest riding weight in the last 12 months was 8st 3lbs, and for the last couple of weeks he hasn't had to get down to anywhere near his basement weight, so for him to take the ride on Valsharah who is racing off 8st 2lbs, it means he will have to sweat off the weight to ride, making Valsharah worth a chance. Jockeys don't tend to take rides below their usual riding weights unless a good opportunity presents itself, and given Valsharah is a strange horse in this Class 3 race, it got the cogs in my brain moving.

Hopefully, there will be no NRs as Bet365 is kindly offering boosted place terms with 3 places on offer.

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