NAP of the Day: Lightning to strike at Musselburgh

There's a healthy chunk of midweek racing in store across Britain and Ireland, with five meetings scheduled, including jumps fare from Worcester and Bellewstown alongside action on the level at Musselburgh, Catterick and Kempton (AW).

Our midweek NAP of the Day made a solid start to his career at Hamilton recently and is now fancied to open his account at the second time of asking for trainer Michael Dods.

Horse Racing Odds

The Portobello Cup Raceday takes centre stage at Musselburgh on Wednesday afternoon, with the feature contest being a two-and-a-quarter-mile marathon test.

Before that, the opening Irish EBF Restricted Maiden Stakes over 7f looks like a good chance for the Michael Dods-trained LIGHTNING GALAXY to open his account.

The Lightning Spear colt debuted at Hamilton (6f, soft) earlier this month and should derive plenty from that run.

He was ill at ease early on, displaying clear signs of greenness on his racecourse bow, but the longer things went on, the more he warmed to the challenge.

The decent pace in that contest appeared to be a help and, in the end, he stayed on very encouragingly to chase home the well-backed favourite.

Connections will have been enthused by what he produced in the circumstances and a decent chunk of improvement is surely forthcoming on this second start.

The strong pace helped last time and this immediate step up to 7f should be a plus factor now as Paul Mulrennan takes over in the saddle.

His tally of 44 winners across the last five seasons at this Edinburgh venue is a standout and he came into this two-day meeting boasting a 23 per cent strike-rate at the course so far this season. It will be a shock if he doesn't add to that this week.

The danger on paper is perhaps the filly Lovely Spirit for the Richard Fahey team. She has three runs behind her and has made the frame in those maiden/novice contests over 6f at Redcar and Ripon on ground ranging from soft-good.

She posted her best effort to date when runner-up at Ripon earlier this month behind a decisive winner and she is a solid contender here in receipt of 5lb from Lightning Galaxy.

Lovely Spirit doesn't set the bar impossibly high by any means though and she wasn't necessarily crying out for a step up in trip, whereas the selection almost certainly will appreciate this extra yardage.

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