Monday’s Racing Tips: Mullins’ Saint can soar at Listowel

It's a busy start to the first full week of June with six race meetings taking place across the UK and Ireland. They come from Ayr, Brighton, Windsor and Wetherby in the UK as well as Gowran Park and Listowel (jumps) in Ireland, where they are enjoying a Bank Holiday Monday.

In Monday's racing tips I've selected three fancies to follow on the cards, including one for Willie Mullins in the feature race on the final day of Listowel's Whit Weekend meeting.

16:20 Listowel – Saint Sam @ 3/1

The John J. Galvin Chase is a race Willie Mullins often targets and Easy Game will be attempting to win it for a third time. He's unbeaten in four chase starts around Listowel but could see a blemish on that record courtesy of his Closutton stablemate SAINT SAM.

Three years the junior of Easy Game, Saint Sam is currently rated 5lb superior with a mark of 160.

Danny Mullins is the man on board and with Paul Townend on board Easy Game, they'll likely be underrated in the betting.

Saint Sam was seemingly going to beat today's rival Visionarian over 2m4f at the Harvest Festival last September only to come down at the last.

He won the Grade 2 Red Mills Chase at Gowran Park in February and was far from disgraced in top-level company on his most recent start at the Punchestown Festival.

Danny Mullins is a master from the front and that running style can pay dividends for Saint Sam back at Listowel, where front-running tactics tend to reign supreme.

15:45 Ayr – Boy Douglas @ 3/1

Last season was one to forget for BOY DOUGLAS as he only made the racetrack twice in the spring before sitting out for 380 days.

The New Bay gelding was a course-and-distance winner (heavy) in October 2022 and has scope for better things having raced only six times in total.

He made his seasonal bow at Thirsk (1m, good to firm) in May, finishing second-best in a 16-runner handicap. That run means he now boasts good form on both fast and slow ground, so he won't be inconvenienced by the forecast 'good-good to soft in places' at Ayr.

This will be just his fourth start in a handicap, with those two efforts last spring likely best forgotten, and his comeback effort suggests a win should be imminent, with the handicapper only putting him up the minimum for that pleasing run.

20:15 Windsor - Nostromo @ 11/2

Roger Teal will have been relatively pleased with Dancing Gemini's effort in the Betfred Derby at Epsom on Saturday, finishing better than midfield despite some traffic woes coming around Tattenham Corner.

The Berkshire-based handler heads for Windsor on Monday evening with NOSTROMO as the gelding chases a first win.

He was three-figure prices in all three starts last season and was unsurprisingly well beaten, but last month's comeback at this track saw him shaping better as he tackled 1m2f for the first time.

The winner Storm Valley left his rivals trailing in that contest but, after getting outpaced a half-mile from home, Nostromo finished off well in a bunched to finish fourth.

He's rated 1lb lower now and these extra two furlongs should be a positive, while he may also improve on the faster surface.

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