Rob Eddy's tips for Monday include selections from Windsor, Musselburgh and Kempton.
There are five race meetings across Britain and Ireland on Monday as Flat cards from Gowran Park, Yarmouth, Musselburgh, Windsor and Kempton (AW) provide a busy start to a week that ends with British Champions Day at Ascot.
We have a trio of Monday fancies to follow, including Tribal Hunter, who is looking to enhance a good course strike-rate for Richard Fahey at Windsor.
Selections
Tribal Hunter (Windsor, 15:45) @ 7/2
Shades Of Summer (Musselburgh, 16:10) @ 5/1
Eden Storm (Kempton, 19:00) @ 33/1
Hunter can take out Windsor target
The Champions Day On Sky Sports Racing Handicap is a six-furlong Class 4 contest on the Monday afternoon card at Windsor as they hurtle closer to the end of their season, and it can go the way of Richard Fahey’s contender TRIBAL HUNTER.
The Sioux Nation gelding won his only turf start as a two-year-old, scoring in a soft ground Hamilton maiden last August over this trip. His efforts either side of that on the all-weather at Newcastle were credible in defeat.
After 391 days out, he returned late last month in a Pontefract handicap (6f, good to soft) and was favoured in the betting, although that race is best forgotten.
He was one of two runners impeded by Roundhay Park around two furlongs from home and that saw him drop to the rear of the eight-runner field.
Oisin Orr got him going again and they were coming with a challenge only to find their pathway blocked a furlong out, whereupon Orr accepted his fate and allowed his mount to come home eased down.
The handicapper has actually dropped him 1lb for that outing and, sent now to a track where Fahey has a 25 per-cent strike-rate with runners in 2023, he’s worth giving another chance to.
Shades Of Summer suited by extra distance at Musselburgh
The feature race at Musselburgh on Monday afternoon is the British Ebf Ruby Anniversary Scottish Premier Fillies’ Handicap over the minimum five furlongs, and a field of nine are set to go to post.
Last-time-out Carlisle winner Mubhijah will be on plenty of shortlists, while top-weight Kitai and Grant Tuer’s Glorious Angel are other solid contenders on form.
Three-time all-weather winner SHADES OF SUMMER is yet to score on turf but she hasn’t been with Jane Chapple-Hyam long and the signs have been positive.
She ran well on stable bow at Salisbury (6f, good to firm) last month, beaten a length-and-a-quarter into third in a Class 2 event, and has since run well at Newmarket (6f, good), beaten by a similar margin despite dropping places late to be seventh.
The Shamardal filly races from an unchanged mark of 79 now and, as a previous winner over this trip, the return to 7f should be a positive for her.
Botti’s Storm worth keeping onside
EDEN STORM showed plenty of promise back in late spring/early summer for trainer Marco Botti, the Starspangledbanner gelding scoring in a 7f Wolverhampton novice on his second start in April and then finishing second of 12 over the same course and distance in mid-May, beaten only by previous Chelmsford novice winner Owl Island (run well since off 88).
Eden Storm, meanwhile, had the summer off and returned to action at Doncaster (7f, good to soft) in a Class 2 handicap at the St Leger Festival.
With a layoff to contend with, that might have been asking plenty of him in amongst some quality operators with more experience than himself and Stefano Cherchi allowed him to coast home in his own time, having failed to muster a challenge from the rear.
This is a drop in grade and returning to the all-weather looks the right move at this juncture. The lightly-race three-year-old has scope to be better than this rating and is perhaps going to be underrated now.
