Bank Holiday Monday racing: four top tips from Andy Stephens

The Racing TV cameras will capture the action at Epsom, Cartmel, Ballinrobe and Downpatrick on Monday. Andy Stephens shares his four best bets.

The meeting at Cartmel on Bank Holiday Monday is one of three National Hunt fixtures on Racing TV and there are just 47 days until Chepstow’s two-day fixture in mid-October, which many view as the start of the “jumps season proper”.

Many horses put by for a summer campaign have had to cope with deep ground, and the emphasis is likely to again be on stamina at the picturesque Cumbria track even if the going, described as “soft” at the time of typing, dries out a little.

That should suit Irish raider Bodhisattva, who is unexposed given a proper test and finds himself in shallower waters after finishing a good fifth in an €80,000 contest over an extended 2m 6f at the Galway Festival last time.

John McConnell, his trainer, has won with seven of his 13 runners in Britain this season and is 8/23 with his runners at Cartmel (35 per cent). In addition, Brian Hayes either won, or finished second, on six of the eight occasions he linked up with McConnell in Britain last term.

The George Scott-trained son of Kodiac was gelded before he set foot on a racecourse and following a couple of initial defeats was a late withdrawal from the Windsor Castle Stakes after being unruly.

He’s probably got a quirk or two (haven’t we all?) but he has reeled off three successive wins since that frustrating episode at the Royal Meeting and looks well worth his place in this Listed contest.

The second of those victories was achieved over course and distance, in fluent fashion carrying a penalty, and he was impressive when clicking on his handicap bow off a mark of 88 at Leicester last time, when carrying 10st 1lb and conceding lumps of weight to the next four home. Watch above.

Seven Questions may well have all the answers, even if the opposition includes Task Force. This Juddmonte Frankel colt justified market confidence on his Salisbury debut and represents Ralph Beckett, who is enjoying a phenomenal summer.

Task Force is the warm favourite, but I fancy he is going to have to be a 100-rated horse (perhaps more) to master Seven Questions. For what it's worth, the horse he beat at Salisbury, admittedly in decisive style, has since scrambled home off a rating of 76.

The amateurs’ Derby features 16-year-old Jack Callan aboard Sun King, who was placed in a Royal Ascot handicap last year off a 6lb higher mark when trained by Aidan O’Brien. The combination are interesting at a general 11-1, albeit the Galileo gelding’s progress has stalled and he is untested at the trip.

Preference is for Captain Haddock, as he ticks more boxes and is also trading at double-figure odds. The six-year-old won this race in emphatic fashion under another young rider, Henry Main, two years ago and is now able to race off a 10lb lower mark.

Consistency has been an issue, but he might well have won the Ladies’ Derby here last time - another race for amateur riders - had he not fluffed the start and given up the outside to no one. In the circumstances, he did well to be beaten a couple of lengths into second by Bug Boy, a rival loitering on a handy mark who has since won again.

The handicapper has turned a blind eye and Captain Haddock won’t mind if the ground continues to dry. This race will have been ringed on his calendar for a long while and it will be a family affair if he prevails. He is owned by Main’s mum and dad, Claire and Charles, in partnership with his godmother Louisa Talbot, and is trained by his aunt, Heather.

Larado wins at Epsom last year

You need a forgiving nature to consider backing Larado in the finale at Epsom because he’s been beaten an aggregate of 44 lengths in his races at Goodwood and Ripon this month.

However, those heavy defeats came on testing ground after a five-month absence and it could be we will see a different model here, especially back on better going on a track where he has won twice in the past.

The handicapper has quickly eased him another 6lb for those recent efforts, meaning he is now 4lb lower then when scoring over course and distance at this meeting last year. This will be his first run at Epsom since that success.The front-runner looks a big price to bounce back and, if nothing else, I fancy he will have back-to-lay potential for those betting in-running. He often trades shorter once the gates open and is a member of Betfair’s infamous 1.01 Club (

).

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