MONDAY RACING TIPS

13:00 Hexham

For Three comes here looking for a hat-trick after scoring twice at Perth in July last year. He has had wind surgery in the interim but his relatively poor record when running after a break would be enough to persuade me look elsewhere today.

Lord Caprio is looking for a different kind of hat-trick being a twice course and distance winner here over the minimum trip at Hexham. He has never won off this sort of mark before though and for that reason I’m passing him over as well.

Serious Ego has been running okay without threatening in his last few starts although he may need the ground a bit softer than the conditions he will encounter here.

Cup Of Coffee makes a long drive up from Worcestershire for this race and so warrants serious consideration. The trip and ground should be fine for her, she is still unexposed and I fully expect the mare to take full advantage of what looks to be a great opportunity here.

CUP OF COFFEE (WIN)

15:15 Hexham

A lot of these runners come into this race in fairly poor form however one horse that catches my eye would be the Nicky Richards horse Everyday Champagne. He is still very much at the start of his career and was sent off favourite on his handicap debut last time out and finished third despite showing signs that he isn’t quite the finished article and there should be ample of improvement to come from him.

Blow By Blow certainly has the potential to get involved though his last win was back in 2018 and the ground may be a little firmer than he would prefer it.

Perfect Man has also been a very good horse in his prime but his tumbling mark isn’t enough to persuade me that he still retains his potential for win purposes and he hasn’t finished higher than sixth since joining Micky Hammond so he is passed over today.

I’m siding with Perfect Champagne despite the likely short odds to justify his likely favouritism here and land the odds in this event.

PERFECT CHAMPAGNE (WIN)

written by Tom Bates