Horse Racing Tips: Salt ready to rock at Southwell

Monday is set to be a fairly quiet day, with just three meetings taking place across Britain and none in Ireland. Carlisle’s eight-race card is the first fixture to kick off and Southwell follows quickly after. Wolverhampton takes us through the evening with a competitive-looking all-weather card.

We have three strong fancies which could be worth following on Monday and they include an unbeaten chaser for Kim Bailey and Mat Nicholls who should still be ahead of the handicapper at Southwell.

Horse Racing Odds

Today's Horse Races

14.05 Southwell - Salt Rock @ 2/1

SALT ROCK didn’t show a great deal in three starts over hurdles and his best effort in that sphere was a fairly close-up fifth behind the decent Royal Infantry at Chepstow in November.

Connections wasted no time in sending him over fences and that has proved to be an inspired decision. Unbeaten in two starts since switching to the larger obstacles, he looks well set to go close once again in this bid for a hat-trick.

He won comfortably when upped to 2m3f at Doncaster last time out and the extra furlong-and-a-half should be no issue on that evidence. That two-and-a-quarter-length success was a career-best effort and a 6lb rise doesn’t look unreasonable.

Clearly he’s progressing nicely over fences and one would imagine he’ll be capable of winning more races before the handicapper catches up. Stable form is a slight issue but it only takes one winner to get back on track and Salt Rock could be the one to do it.

14.50 Carlisle - Tanganyika @ 7/2

He is perhaps not the most consistent of performers, but TANGANYIKA is more than capable when on a going day. Venetia Williams’ seven-year-old won twice on heavy ground over hurdles last term and was particularly impressive when taking a competitive race at Newbury by a wide margin last March.

Lightly raced over fences, he returned to winning ways on good to soft at Market Rasen when last seen and proved his adaptability with regards to ground. He got the better of a progressive and in-form rival that day and jumped notably well at the last, which surely sealed the win.

A 4lb rise doesn’t appear to be outrageous and as this is just his fourth chase start, it’s likely that there’s more to come in this sphere. Jockey Charlie Deutsch is having an excellent season so far and he could well provide his boss with another winner here.

17.05 Carlisle - Broughshane @ 7/4

Look out for Jonjo & A.J. O’Neill’s runner here as BROUGHSHANE is clearly going in the right direction. He began the campaign with a comfortable success in a low-grade race at Fontwell in October and it was obvious that a step up in class was coming after that.

The son of Mahler bumped into a smart stayer when runner-up over three miles at Ffos Las the following month. Broughshane went one better in good style over an extended 2m4f at Southwell last time out and a 9lb rise doesn’t look unreasonable.

Irish raider Portnacoo looks like the biggest danger here but the O’Neills’ seven-year-old is progressing well and should have too much for Ross O’Sullivan’s runner.

Horse Racing Tips from Betfred Insights.