Monday tips: Andy Stephens has a Yankee in mind

What are you doing on September 10? It’s going to be the rarest of blanks in the British racing programme after a one-day strike was announced over the weekend but Racing TV viewers will not be left empty-handed as the channel will be showing the evening fixture at Cork that day.

There are not too many runners to digest on Monday, either, with only seven of the 27 races having double-figure fields, and no race having more than a dozen runners.

I’ve got four relatively short-priced fancies who I’ll be sticking them in a Yankee. 

There’s a Racing TV Club Day at Stratford on Monday which my colleague, Harry Allwood, will be hosting. If you are attending, make sure you ask Harry who he fancies, as he’s sure to have a view on something at the meeting. 

My main fancy on the card is Diesel Line, who has made a bright start for Charlie and Adam Pogson since being sold for £10,000 and leaving the yard of Jeremy Scott. 

The seven-year-old has had a couple of breathing operations but the Pogsons have been the first to equip him with a tongue-tie, and maybe that has been an ingredient in the gelding running well in defeat at Uttoxeter (beat all bar an unexposed one) before going one better at the same track last time, when those who sent him off a well-backed favourite rarely had a moment of concern. 

He's been pushed up 6lb, but he remains in the same grade of race and can follow up. 

We are not going to get much of a price about Jim Goldie’s thriving filly, but she does look banker material. 

She’s reeled off four successive wins in the past month – the last three being at this track – and again won with a stack in hand after being heavily backed over 7f here last week. 

The four-year-old looks thrown in under a 5lb penalty and Danny Tudhope, aboard her during her winning sequence, will again be on board. Her five rivals have yet to win a race this year between them, from 24 outings, and look to be running for second spot. Al Muqdad is fancied to fill the forecast. 

This seven-year-old usually misses a beat at the start – he’s never going to win a RaceiQ gold medal for his 0-20mphs speeds – and often gets going too late, regularly catching the eye with his finishing efforts. 

That has been the case in his five races since edging home at Musselburgh at the start of July. “Kept on” and “nearest finish” feature in many of his post-race comments, but he has won nine of his 59 races and that’s a strike-rate that would satisfy the owners of plenty of middle of the road handicappers like him. 

All bar five of those career starts have been over 7f or further, and it’s fascinating that Jim Goldie is belatedly dropping him back to 6f. I fancy it may well galvanise the seven-year-old because he can be keen in his races and clearly wants a proper gallop to aim at. 

This could be teed up for him because Kelpie Grey, his stablemate, who also drops in trip, usually forces the pace, and Mythical Phoenix and Sacred Falls usually go forward. Lauren Young is familiar with Yaaser’s traits and the 7lb claimer is back on board after being overlooked for his past two starts. 

Like Jannas Journey, she’s another filly enjoying a purple patch, and I fancy she can complete a hat-trick of wins here. 

The four-year-old impressed when winning in commanding fashion at Pontefract last month, having slipped 16lb in the ratings in the previous year, and followed up at Nottingham last month, looking like scoring in similarly decisive style when breezing a couple of lengths clear going down to the final furlong, only to be closed late on. She ended up getting home by a short head. 

Ravishing Beauty gave the impression that she might have been idling, although she was in a deeper grade and they did go hard in the first half of that contest. RaceiQ reveals they went fast, fast, very fast and fast in the first four furlongs, and the others in the frame at Nottingham were ridden more patiently than her. 

The silver lining is that this strong traveller has only been nudged up 2lb, and I imagine Jack Garrity will hang on to her a bit longer this time. 

Ravishing Beauty’s past two wins have been on easier ground, but she is flexible regards the going and is likely to have this teed up for her by Runninsonofagun, who usually leads at a fair clip.