Horse Racing Tips: Knockout to deliver blow to his rivals

There’s something to cater for everyone’s tastes on Monday, with five meetings taking place across the UK and Ireland, making it a relatively busy day.

Windsor, Thirsk and Worcester provide the afternoon action, while the evening’s events are staged at Laytown and Kempton. We have picked out our three strongest fancies for our Monday racing tips and they include an Eve Johnson Houghton-trained handicap debutant at Kempton.

Today’s Horse Races

14:50 Thirsk – Moostar @ 4/1

MOOSTAR has only had three starts so far and her first two races have produced plenty of winners. It’s also worth noting that she faced a tough task on debut and was up against subsequent Group 2 runner-up Mountain Breeze.

One thing she’ll need to do is settle better here as she made life very difficult for herself when pulling way too hard at Yarmouth last time out. Darryll Holland’s juvenile did well to finish third with that in mind and she should be up to winning at this level.

An opening mark of 67 seems manageable, especially if she can improve again. That seems likely as she has done so with every start so far and the yard is operating at a strike-rate of 25 per cent in the last fortnight.

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15:12 Windsor – The Whipmaster @ 7/1

Gary & Josh Moore are yet to enjoy a winner from 16 runners at Windsor this season, but they run two in this race and THE WHIPMASTER appears to have every chance of breaking their duck.

Wind surgery appeared to do the trick as he returned to form with an excellent third at Lingfield when last seen. That was a significantly better performance than his two previous efforts this season which resulted in heavy defeats.

This horse is very well treated on his best form and he cruised home to win by three lengths over course and distance back in June 2023. What’s particularly notable about that performance is that it came off a 6lb higher mark. Therefore, if he can produce a similar effort here, he’ll surely be bang in the mix.

The handicapper has left his mark alone since finishing third last time out and he could even improve for that run.

16:55 Kempton – Mister Knockout @ 10/1

Look out for handicap debutant MISTER KNOCKOUT in Kempton’s opener on Monday, as Eve Johnson Houghton’s juvenile is progressing with each run. Handicaps could be the making of him and he’s fully expected to take a big step forward.

The handicapper has allocated him an opening mark of 61 and he should be capable of winning plenty of races at this sort of level. It’s pretty obvious that the best is yet to come and his profile suggests he should progress again here.

His latest effort was his best to date and he ran well for a long way before fading a little in the final furlong. The jury is out on whether or not he was outstayed or outsprinted, but he tries 7f for the first time here and there’s evidence in the gelding’s pedigree to suggest it won’t be a problem.

One would imagine that this mark won’t be beyond him and he should be getting off the mark sooner rather than later.

This is an Extra Place Race so Betfred will be paying 4 Places (1/5 Odds) instead of 3.

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