Horse Racing Tips: Elliott to land the Plate on Wednesday

There's some top quality racing on Wednesday with the continuation of both Glorious Goodwood and the Galway Festival through the afternoon and evening.

The Galway Plate is the feature race in Ireland and my horse racing tips for Wednesday, July 31 includes an each-way pick in that very event.

15:35 Goodwood - Henry Longfellow @ 6/5

With Rosallion out of the Goodwood feature on Wednesday, it’s blown the race wide open and HENRY LONGFELLOW, who was narrowly denied by Richard Hannon's stable star in the St James's Palace at Royal Ascot, could be the way to go.

He looks set to get an uncontested lead here in a small field, which is always a danger, particularly when the world’s best jockey, Ryan Moore, is allowed to dictate the fractions on the front end.

A fast surface is right up his street and there’s every chance he’ll be hard to pass over this course and distance which can favour front running types.

Today's Horse Races

19:10 Galway - Zanahiyr e/w @ 8/1

Gordon Elliott has a remarkable record in the Galway Plate, winning four of the last eight renewals including last year’s with Ash Tree Meadow who turns up for another crack. He is one of seven Elliott runners in this contest but might have a tough task off top-weight this time around.

It’s probably telling that Jack Kennedy opts for the ride on ZANAHIYR who has a few factors in his favour on Wednesday evening.

The son of Nathaniel at Grade 1 level in his last couple of starts, running with credit at the Cheltenham Festival before probably finding very testing ground against him at Fairyhouse when last seen.

A return to a faster surface should suit given that some of his best hurdle form has come when going has appeared in the going description and he’s been shaping like a real stayer over fences, so this extra two and a half furlongs should be right up his street.

Notably, he’s able to operate from his lower chase mark here, which is 10lb lower than his hurdle rating and he has the right sort of profile for a race of this nature.

This is a Super Extra Place Race, so Betfred are paying 6 places instead of 4 at 1/5 the odds for all each-way bets.

19:45 Galway - Thor's Hammer @ 9/2

THOR'S HAMMER looked really promising as a juvenile, placing in a couple of maidens this time last year and he’s continued on his upward curve this campaign.

After a big run on his reappearance when runner-up at Gowran in April, he then showed a really good attitude to win a Killarney maiden second time out.

He showed that was no fluke when beaten roughly two lengths in a Premier Handicap at the Curragh last time and that’s an effort worth marking up given that he was forced to race wide throughout the long turn for home.

He did well to stick on for third that day and the handicapper left his mark alone, despite the promise shown in that run. There’s also the possibility that he’ll improve for quicker ground given that he’s a son of Night Of Thunder and with the potential of more to come, he could be the one to side with.

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