Horse racing tips: Monday picks for Galway and Ayr

3.05 Ayr: See My Baby Jive

The seven-year-old bids for a remarkable four-timer over course and distance in the space of three weeks and he has his conditions to go out and do it.

See My Baby Jive looks like he still has more to offer, with his running style certainly a help here since he can be a bit awkward early on and somewhat outpaced before invariably finding strongly at the finish. His remarkable first win to kick off his current sequence is certainly worth watching again!

The ground here will also accentuate his strong-finishing qualities, with conditions described as good to soft, good in places on Sunday morning with the chance of heavy rain on Monday morning. See My Baby Jive acts well on ground with give underfoot.

He's also able to operate in the same grade as recent wins and he still receives weight from several of his rivals in this 0-65 contest. There is some pace on here but this might not be as strongly-run early on as his recent wins and that might just help him to travel a bit better, while he has already beaten five of these rivals and there are not many new contenders this time that look a genuine threat. The form of his penultimate win got a bit of a boost while he beat a very well-backed Irish raider last time.

Trainer Donal Whillans has a notable record at Ayr and particularly in course handicaps (19 from 98 since 2010; +£71, 1.53 A/E) and his thriving performer and season’s star can continue the good work.

4:15 Ayr: Chriszoff

This five-runner feature has plenty of keen racers who like to get on with things but Chriszoff showed that he could race more amenably last time and this strong finisher can land the four-timer.

He's not looked the smoothest traveller so far but this lightly-raced improver is getting better on that score and he finishes to good effect, most notably in victory over course and distance last time where he didn’t look best placed a few furlongs from home.

He looks high-enough weighted on his form, but I don’t think that will have the biggest bearing here as the two runners at the bottom of the handicap face something of a thankless task at these weights while Knockbrex just hasn’t finished his races off this season. His reputation is founded on that eye-catching handicap debut at the Ebor Festival, but the sectionals suggest he didn’t ‘earn’ his soft lead and he emptied significantly in the final three furlongs, as he subsequently has done at Ascot and Newmarket. Paddy The Squire is interesting and will handle softer ground, but I would be keener on him at a mile and a half.

Chriszoff has been ably assisted by good jockeys so far yet Hollie Doyle taking over for the first time makes further appeal for a yard that is seven from 20 (plus three seconds and two thirds) in Flat handicaps here. Any 11-10 or bigger would appeal about the likely favourite.

6.40 Galway: Teed Up and Scaramanga

The €100,000 highlight on day one of the Galway Festival is a race I look out for and, with some quibbles about most of this year's 20-runner field on what could be fairly testing ground, the value could lie towards the head of the market in a race which might be big on numbers but smaller on strong chances and Teed Up is hard to kick out of the shake-up.

He's gone well at the Galway Festival twice before for one of the best target trainers around and he's shaped well on recent starts, firstly with his career-best in the November Handicap at Doncaster late last year before an eye-catching return at Tramore last time (races often a test of speed at the trip there to boot) in what was surely a seasonal return with a view to Galway.

The biggest thing going for him here is his assured stamina and the fact that he will go on ground which could be pretty testing. His rider has not ridden many winners (18 from 325 rides) but he rates as one of the more experienced jockeys here (first ride under Rules in 2011) and with that in mind his 7lb claim isn't a disadvantage.

The ground is a concern for Scaramanga, but he's still worth an each-way interest at the general 11-1 and 12-1 - never mind bigger double-figure quotes - for Monday's big race.

He's an eight-year-old but only lightly-raced for Willie Mullins - just four starts for Closutton after being moved from Paul Nicholls - and Scaramanga travelled well into the straight at a big price in the County Hurdle with genuine 140-rated handicappers at the Cheltenham Festival in March, while his latest success - in America in Grade One company - may not amount to much in terms of genuine form but Mullins has previously sent high-class horses Shaneshill and Nichols Canyon to that race in recent years.

Scaramanga looks the most appealing here strictly in terms of profile for this specific test for this yard, which has a more select squad (four runners) tis the yard here this year, with Mullins having won the race four times in the last six years and his 24 total runners priced 25-1 or lower in that time hitting the places 50% of the time.

Jody Townend is an asset in the saddle and, with stamina assured, he looks a little underestimated at this fairly early stage.

7.15 Galway: Rhythm King

The top nine runners are separated by just 4lb in the weights here and that might just help Rhythm King make a bold bid under 9st 13lb in this compressed handicap with optimal ground conditions to boot.

Rhythm King handles heavy ground while he also has form over a mile, so the seven furlongs and stiff finish here should see him to decent effect in a field where they could feasibly be fairly well drawn out on the turn for home.

He's not been seen for 89 days and that might be a concern, but he has won after a break before (on seasonal return this year) while trainer Mark Fahey has a solid record with runners returning after 90 days or more on the Flat since 2010 (14%, +£5.50, 2.06 A/E).

The stable has been ticking along nicely from small numbers too, with the yard performing above market expectation throughout the whole of 2023 and Fahey is three from 11 (another placed) across both codes this month, with the three winners all coming inside the last two and a half weeks.

Fahey has been training winners for a decade now but has not run many at the Galway Festival traditionally, though he's sent out a winner and a runner-up from four Flat runners at the meeting, with three of those contenders in races confined to horses rated 80 or under like this one. There's a chance that Rhyhtm King might have been saved for this.