Ray Mon Dough was clearly a trap, and many other punters followed suit.
The money was strong on the Oliver Cole-trained horse, as he was backed into 6/4.
He was keen when pushed up to take a joint lead. I don't think he was overly keen, but when the group swamped him, he went backwards extremely quickly and finished in a very disappointing last place.
Rating 5/1 – Chepstow 3.50
Tuesday's racing is of a very poor standard, so we've got to deal with some low-quality races.
In this race, Look Back Smiling is at the top of the market, and I think you've got to be brave to back him. I've always been a follower of this horse when he was trained by Gemma Tutty, and tipped him up in a couple of races when I thought he had his conditions. It's no secret that his form has come on a slow surface, so running on good to firm, despite a low handicap mark, means he has to be taken on.
Law Of Design is also falling to a very low mark, but he has been extremely out of form and would also prefer some rain. Rating was the one who caught my eye, whilst not being the flashiest or the horse who wins regularly.
What I liked about Rating was her consistency. She always runs to her mark, and that has meant her handicap mark doesn't change much. However, you know what you're going to get from her, and in a race full of question marks, surely 5/1 is a good price.
Rossa Ryan is back in the saddle, and even though he hasn't ridden her to success in the past, having him in the saddle is a big positive. He takes over from the claimers who have been on recently, and at Chepstow he is one of the best jockeys. He has a good strike rate at this track, and his profit ratio is very good.
Von Trotter 11/4 – Chepstow 4.25
Von Trotter stepped up to seven furlongs last time out at Doncaster and showed a good level of improvement.
He was a maiden prior to the Doncaster win, but his run at Ripon the time before was a good effort to finish in second place. The winner of that race was clearly a fair chunk ahead of the handicapper, and has since run well to finish third in a Class 4 at Newmarket (Ripon was C6).
They have tried different tactics throughout the fairly short career of Von Trotter, and maybe the front-running ride was what he wanted. He eventually won by 2.5 lengths and did it cosily. Stepping back into a Class 5 race makes this a little more difficult, as does the rise in the weights, but it's a rare runner at the track for the Easterby yard.
They have sent four runners to the track since they combined as a training partnership. It has resulted in 0 wins, with the best being two fourth-placed finishes, but it shows it's not a track they go to a lot. When Mick Easterby was the sole trainer, he had only sent seven runners to the track, two winners and three as runner-up, which is a much better record.
GambleAware