Tuesday’s racing tips – Top Of The Class looks a class above her rivals at Kempton

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Walking away empty-handed is hard to take, but when you're 30 yards away from a winner and the jockey decides to ease the horse up, what can you do? 

The race in which my selection Paddy De Pole ran in was eventually won by a 40/1 outsider, trained by a yard who didn't have a winner since the 22/23 season. Well done if you spotted that one. The main talking point has to be about jockey James Doyle, who rode my other selection No Regrets. No Regrets was advised at 2/1 last night and was backed into odds-on throughout the day. The horse picked up well in the final furlong and was trading at 1/14 in play to win the race in the final furlong. James Doyle had seemingly got the better of the eventual winner but all of sudden eased down in the final 30 yards, dropping his hands and allowing Heather Main's horse to nab him on the line. He somehow escaped a ban for this ride, with his excuse of “my horse was spooked by the finish line” being a good enough excuse to get him out of trouble. If he rides to the line and pushes the head down he wins comfortably and it seems a total kop out by stewards in my opinion. Let me know in the comments your views and opinions on the ride if you happened to back the horse yourself.

Profit and loss for August stands at -12.847 

Cairnzy's Tips

Oolong Poobong 7/2 – Wolverhampton 7.00

Tuesday's racing isn't great and I've found myself tipping in a race at Wolverhampton in a field filled with lightly raced two year olds, not ideal but we'll stick with it nonetheless.

There are a couple of nicely bred types in this field, but it's the Ed Bethall-trained Oolong Poobong that stood out as the most likely winner of this contest. There were a couple of things that drew me to this horse, the name not being one of them, I promise! Although not winning on debut at Haydock last month, I was impressed in how she went about her business in the final two furlongs. She came under pressure before a few of the others, and at one point looked as if she was going backwards. When Callum Rodriguez pulled the persuader she responded immediately, eating up some nice ground in the business end to chase the winner of the way to line.

My selection built upon her debut effort to win next time out at Newcastle on the AW under jockey PJ Mcdonald. She was prominent enough that day in the front pack and showed a nice attitude to knuckle down under pressure for PJ McDonald. She won with a fair bit in hand in the end, getting the better of Grant Tuer's Farandaway by 1L. Farandaway went down by a neck on his following outing, so the form looks okay on paper.

Professor Tickle 33/1 EW – Kempton 5.15

I may be throwing with hope in sticking up Professor Tickle as a selection, but I can't help but feel he's massively overpriced at 33/1. Bet365 is offering 3 places instead of 2 for this race which makes him worthy of a small eachway play in this pretty dire class 5 affair.

Firstly, I feel the market favorite can be taken on in this contest. I can understand why the Gosden runner is marked up as favourite as she is the least exposed runner in the field, she looks progressive enough on paper and an opening mark of 69 is workable but I wasn't fully convinced on the form of her most recent outing when finishing second behind Sir Michael Stoute's Winning Point. Winning Point was soundly beaten into third a couple of days ago at Pontefract after looking like a progressive horse in her previous outing. The third Triumph Of Piece has since won which boosts the form however the horses she did beat were having their first outings while Upscale who finished second has been expensive enough to follow, being turned over at short enough odds in three of her last 5 outings.

I thought Professor Tickle was of interest, his recent form figures are far from inspiring, however, those runs have come on turf, while most of Professor Tickles better form in the past has come on the AW. He is back down to his last winning mark of 67 and Hollie Doyle is an eyecatching jockey booking for David Loughnane.

Rizzel's Tips

Top Of The Class 2/1 – Kempton 3.45

This Class 5 race for fillies over the mile at Kempton doesn't look to be a strong race, so I'm more than happy to stick to the horses who have shown decent form in recent times. Top Of The Class looks to be the clear play in this race, and I think the odds available for her at the moment are more than generous.

Top Of The Class appears to be more at home the artificial surfaces. She has recorded her only win over today's C&D and has produced three other placed efforts on the all-weather, which is much better than her record on the turf which doesn't read anywhere near as good, although her recent run at Doncaster was her career best on grass and the form looks to be stacking up nicely. Before touching on the form of her recent race, I thought her win at Kempton the time before was a very good effort. She was drawn wide so Saffie Osbourne decided to anchor her towards the rear, and that didn't seem to be the best place to be for that race as the pace held up quite well, so that makes this horse's win even more impressive. Two of the front three were close to the pace/leading, and the only other closer outside of Top Of Class was King Of Ithaca, and that horse has since won and won easily, producing an RPR of +13 to his rating at the time. Top Of The Class had to come from further off the pace than the fourth, and made the ground up quite nicely, nipping up the inside to grab the rail and probably won with a fair bit in hand.

Last time out they opted for the turf which hadn't been productive for this filly, but she shaped well off a 5lb higher mark for her recent win at Kempton. She dwelt from the stalls, and had to settle for a rear position again, but ran on and managed to finish fourth. The form looks strong for the grade as the 16/1 winner has since followed up with a very easy win off a 5lb higher mark, producing an RPR of 83 which is ridiculously high for a Class 6 race. The runner-up has won twice since, so it looked to be a strong race for the grade, which bodes well for today's race which doesn't appear to be the strongest of races.

Today, she races against her own sex, which should make life a tad easier for her, as generally speaking, racing against the opposite sex for fillies is a much tougher task. That should make her 4lb higher mark than when winning here a month ago well within reach. My slight concern is the constant slow starts and being drawn in Stall 1 could see her crammed in on the rail, which isn't ideal, even at Kempton where they have a cutaway.

Big Zou 7/1 EW – Kempton 4.15

I think this race looks a bit more daunting than it actually is, and that's due to some of the bigger yards and owners turning up, as well as the likes of the pesky Gary Moore yard who love to land a gamble, but I can't be put off from going for Big Zou.

Big Zou has some very strong form from his three first career starts, mainly from the last two which saw him finish 3rd/11 and 1st/12. Those good performances came over a mile, so today's trip poses a different question, but it shows that he has a good level of ability. He was third behind See That Storm who has since won two in a row since moving to Ed Bethell's yard, most recently winning on Sunday and doing it in good style. Big Zou then managed to get his first win at Southwell, and the form has worked out much better than anyone probably would've anticipated. The runner-up was a raider from Ireland who then returned to Dundalk after a good second-placed finish and went on to win two in a row, with his last win recording an RPR of 93. Back in fourth of that Southwell win was King Of Spain who has won twice since, beating my selection on Sunday, Path To Dubai, who ran a belter from off the pace on the weekend.

Big Zou's debut run saw him finish fourth. The winner is now a 100-rated horse, and the runner-up has finished 4th/12 in a Listed race at Meydan worth £103k. The third-placed horse is now rated 89 and won a Class 4 race at Chester by 9.2L. Obviously, we see on a daily basis that horse form math doesn't always work out, but based on what we've seen on his runs before his return to the track, which was a 168-day layoff, Big Zou could potentially be chucked in off a mark of 78. I'm willing to throw his recent run out of the window as it was a decent-sized layoff and it was on the turf, he has shown a good aptitude for the all-weather on his three runs prior and he has tended to run on strongly over a mile, so the new trip should be within reach, especially with the Dam being a Listed winner over 10f.

Robert Havlin who has been on Big Zou two of the four times he has raced has opted for the Gosden horse, which isn't concerning given he is one of the stable jockeys for that yard and has ridden that horse on every start. Oisin Murphy gets on board, which isn't great when it comes to the history of Peter Chapple-Hyam booking him as he is 0/10 in the last five years, but he is a multiple champion jockey and considering they had a claimer on board for his return run, this looks like a very positive booking. Bet365 is offering an extra place in this race, so I've opted to take my selection eachway at 7/1.

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