Monday horse racing tips: Four best bets from Ross Millar

After last week's 8-1 winner, our columnist Ross Millar bids to continue his good start to the year with four tips across Monday's jumps cards. Enjoy all the action from Huntingdon and Punchestown live on Racing TV.

This season has been a bit feast or famine hasn’t it?

The cold weather halted plenty of jump racing over the last few weeks, which I must confess left me feeling at rather a loose end. Yet there is always a positive to a negative - and on a personal level my ‘good husband’ points tally sits at an all-time high with Mrs Millar courtesy of plenty of chopped logs and general helpfulness.

Yet a bumper nine-race card at Cheltenham for Trials Day on Saturday was something of a payback and there were plenty of exciting finishes with many of the results throwing up the ‘feel good’ stories that resonate with the racing public at large.

Niall Houlihan set perfect fractions on Editeur Du Gite in the Albert Bartlett Clarence House Chase. Edwardstone burst to the front up the hill but Houlihan galvanised Gary Moore’s plucky and progressive nine-year-old to finish powerfully in the last 100 yards.

While Editeur Du Gite received a perfect ride, I’m not sure the same can be said of the ride given by Paul Townend to the disappointing Energumene. He was maybe guilty of riding with a bit too much confidence and didn’t bargain on the winner galloping so resolutely. The mistake at the last was one born of desperation and put paid to any chance he had. Poor rides from Paul Townend are a thing of rarity and I have no doubt that come March he’ll atone for this bad day at the office. Energumene has slipped to an attractive price for the Champion Chase now and in my book is still the most likely winner.

The Paddy Power Cotswold Chase showcased the patience of persistence of Lucinda Russell and Peter Scudamore. Plenty, including myself, felt that Ahoy Senor would be better served by a return to hurdles. But their steadfast conviction that he was a top-class horse in the making was proven to be correct on Saturday. His jumping was more assured, though still not perfect and he demonstrated a powerful finishing effort to collar the aggressively-ridden Sounds Russian half way up the run in. A Northern trained one-two in a big Saturday feature was truly a positive for the sport.

Noble Yeats struggled to cope with the speed in the early part of the race and surely Gold Cup aspirations have been cooled now.

Monday provides plenty of racing action and I have selections from Hereford, Plumpton and Huntingdon.

3.00 Hereford: Moriko De Vassy

If he can belatedly put it all together I’m convinced he’s better than his mark of 125.

I was convinced this gorgeous son of Cokoriko would be better over fences than over hurdles, but that hasn’t yet been the case and he’s proved to be expensive to follow so far this season. His latest run was woeful as he didn’t ever seem to get involved and he jumped scrappily throughout. If taking that run in isolation he couldn’t be considered here.

His chase debut was also blighted by jumping errors, including one monstrous one, so it’s to his credit that he was only beaten a length by the now 134-rated Notlongtillmay, to whom he was conceding 4lb.

The chances for Moriko De Vassy here largely hinge on three factors - the return of Aidan Coleman, who has been on board for two of his three career wins, and secondly the step-up in trip to 2m4f which should result in a slower tempo that might allow him to organise his feet better at his fences. Finally, the application of first-time cheekpieces which will hopefully instil some focus, which has been missing in his last two starts.

3.15 Plumpton: Jerrash

Given how powerfully he finished when winning over an extended 2m5f at Ascot on his hurdling debut it surprised me that his final three runs of last season came over shorter distances.

Jerrash did manage one further win at Fontwell, but that was a weak contest in which he started at 1-5. He disappointed on his final start at Sandown in March when trailing in behind Complete Unknown, a horse he’d previously accounted for in that Ascot win.

This step-up in trip looks a positive and the form of that Ascot win looks solid. He finished two lengths in front of the aforementioned Complete Unknown (rated 137 over hurdles) and seven lengths in front of 125-rated Galia Des Liteaux (rated 146 over fences).

It’s a mild concern that he could be too keen on this reappearance, but it’s a risk I’m happy to take given the apparent leniency of his mark of just 125.

3.25 Huntingdon: The Pink’n

This Seamus Mullins-trained grey was a selection last time when finishing fourth at Taunton on his first hurdles start for 737 days. He was noticeably weak in the market on that occasion and, having made a stylish forward move exiting the back straight, he duly weakened in the closing stages.

He did show enough though to suggest that he still has races in him. The handicapper has dropped him 2lb to a mark of 129 and I think that’s generous given that he was second in a Listed handicap hurdle off 138 just three starts ago.

This sharp right-handed track should suit and I expect him to step forward from his Taunton return. If he does, he’s handicapped to win this.

4.00 Huntingdon: Loud As Lions

He has clearly been difficult to train with breaks of 161, 708 and 246 days punctuating his career. He also has more letters in his form figures than I’d usually care to see yet, when he’s on song, he’s a smart performer in this grade.

I was actually at Hereford to see his wide-margin win on chase debut back in 2019 while his latest win came under David Bass over this course and distance in 2020. That run came just 30 days after a poor effort at Wincanton with a procedure to adjust his wind sandwiched in between.

Loud As Lions arrives here with the same profile; a poor run at this track 35 days ago but crucially yet another procedure on his wind. He’s now ten years of age and I feel it’s notable that connections are prepared to fund a fourth breathing procedure – they clearly feel he still has more to give.

He is quite obviously a speculative selection but,from a rating 10lb below his last winning mark and with Bass on board once again, I’m prepared to chance that he can roar back to form.

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