Sunday Racing Tips: Gennadius to land the spoils at Chelmsford

The weather isn’t playing ball in Britain and Ireland this weekend and Exeter has fallen foul of the rainfall, leaving us with just the three scheduled meetings on Sunday.

Our Sunday racing tips therefore consists of three on the all-weather, at Chelmsford, including one for trainer Richard Hannon who won a course and distance maiden in very good style a couple of starts ago. There should be more to come from him in handicaps.

13:37 Chelmsford - Aneirin's Sword @ 6/4

Lambourn trainer Jamie Osborne enjoyed a good winner at Meydan last week and the very lightly raced handicapper ANEIRIN’S SWORD could add to his tally on home soil.

The son of Mehmas didn’t show a great deal in a couple of maidens and a novice but it was a completely different story on his handicap debut over course and distance last month. Stepping up to a mile clearly suited and he took a huge step forward to dead-heat for first.

He was probably wider than ideal throughout but he responded well to Rob Hornby’s drive, despite still looking a tad green when hanging to the left in the closing stages. Three Socks On joined him on the line and that was much more like it.

Osborne’s grey stuck to his task well when runner-up at Kempton last time out and there could be more to come, despite another 2lb rise.

14:37 Chelmsford - Silky Robin @ 9/1

A field of eight has been declared for this 7f handicap and there are a couple of potential candidates, but the one who stands out most is Brian Toomey’s SILKY ROBIN, who could return to winning ways now that the handicapper is beginning to relent.

It’s noted that he’s a better horse on turf, as all of his four victories have come on grass, but he has placed six times on artificial surfaces and should be able to win a race of this stature. Beaten by less than a length at Wolverhampton in October, he ran on well to finish third.

The son of Exceed And Excel completed a hat-trick of wins in the summer, with those successes coming over an extended 5f and over 6f at Lingfield. It has been a while since his last run over 7f and the manner of his Lingfield win suggests the trip will be fine.

15:37 Chelmsford - Gennadius @ 4/1

Richard Hannon is operating at a strike-rate of 20% in the last fortnight and his course strike-rate so far this year is double that. Two winners from five runners represents a very good return and recent maiden winner GENNADIUS can make it three from six.

Upped to a mile here for his second start of the season, none of his six rivals could get anywhere near him and he took up the running with a furlong or so to go. The race was over pretty quickly after that and he still won by eight lengths, despite being eased down in the closing stages.

He was a little disappointing upon his return to handicap company here next time, he does need to leave that run behind him but clearly he’s useful if putting his best foot forward.