Monday Racing Tips: Coin has the power at Redcar

Flat racing holds sway across the UK and Ireland on Monday with three of the day’s meetings being on the level, whilst Kelso provides the National Hunt action.

Kelso starts us off and is swiftly followed by Redcar and Windsor, before Kempton’s seven-race, all-weather card takes us into the evening. Amongst our Monday fancies is one for trainer Tim Easterby at Redcar who makes his handicap debut off a reasonable-looking opening mark and should find plenty of improvement.

15.42 Redcar - Look Back Smiling @ 13/2

Gemma Tutty’s LOOK BACK SMILING could certainly be worth keeping an eye on at Redcar. The four-year-old put in a career best performance when winning the Lincoln consolation race at Doncaster when last seen.

The son of Fast Company overcame a slow start to earn victory that day and managed to hold off the late challengers, despite hanging right in the closing stages. Connections must be happy with a 4lb rise and that may not be enough to prevent him from following up.

Conditions are set to be pretty testing at Redcar but this horse won on soft last time and was victorious on heavy ground on his final start of last season. Whilst the going won’t suit every horse, it certainly won’t both him and he should be bang in the mix once again.

17.12 Redcar - Coin Power @ 9/2

Tim Easterby’s COIN POWER has only had three starts to date, finishing sixth in each of them. This is his handicap debut and an opening mark of 59 looks very workable indeed.

There should be plenty of improvement to come upon switching to handicaps and significantly better is now expected. His dam placed in a group 3 over 7f so his pedigree suggests he should be well up to winning at this level.

He’s not been seen since July, where he was beaten by just shy of eight lengths over an inadequate trip of 5f. Having been gelded since, that will help to ensure that his mind is fully on the job at hand.

The combination of the step up to 7f and the switch to handicaps could be just what Coin Power needs to get off the mark. Even if this isn’t the day, victories will surely come sooner rather than later.

14.30 Kelso - Lahardaun @ 7/1

George Bewley sends out LAHARDAUN for this race and the seven-year-old gelding has progressed since switching to handicaps.

It was a much better effort from him on handicap debut over an extended three miles at Ayr on his penultimate start. He may even have finished closer if not for being a little short of room just before the final flight.

Getting off the mark over 2m4f on heavy ground at Hexham last time out, he was always up with the pace and stayed on powerfully to score by a length-and-a-quarter. A 6lb rise seems pretty fair and there could be further improvement left in the tank.

The step back up in trip is unlikely to cause a problem and may even help as the conditions aren’t as severe as they were at Hexham last time. A follow up victory may well be on the cards here and it’s likely that he remains ahead of the handicapper.

Horse racing tips from Betfred Insights.