NAP of the Day: 2/1 Monsieur the man to back on Thursday

Another winner on Wednesday takes my strike rate for this NAP of the Day column in September to 63% (seven winners from 11 tips).

Hopefully those figures can get even better on Thursday as I put my faith in a lightly-raced three-year-old in Pontefract’s penultimate contest.

Roger Varian’s Times Edition sets the standard for this mile-long maiden, but it’s a modest one.

The three-year-old Kingman filly has run six times to date and is yet to get off the mark. She’s been runner-up on three occasions, including at Ffos Las a few weeks back when throwing away a three-length lead inside the final furlong.

She’s becoming extremely expensive to follow and must be opposed here.

William Haggas is in good form and his filly With Style has fair claims, but I prefer those of George Scott’s MONSIEUR FUDGE.

The Amo Racing-owned son of Frankel fetched €360k (around £303k) in the sales ring a couple of years ago, but he’s clearly not been easy to train in the meantime.

He started out with Richard Hannon, finishing a highly-respectable third on his debut in a warm Newmarket maiden won by the 104-rated Macduff in August last year, before switching to Aidan Murray and later George Scott – with no runs in between – this summer.

His reappearance finally came at Salisbury 20 days ago and he was a solid second in a novice won by the beautifully-bred Shamran for Harry Charlton. Fox Avatar, who followed up at Beverley on Wednesday, was a length-and-a-half behind in third.

Given that was just the second start of his career and his first in over a year, and he tried to make all, it was a good effort. There should be a decent amount of improvement to follow.

The 16:40 Pontefract Odds suggest his other realistic rival, aside from the aforementioned Times Edition and With Style, is Harry Charlton’s Rickshaw in the famous Juddmonte silks.

He has an excellent pedigree and a market check is advised, but he’s already been gelded and wears a tongue tie off the bat, which gets the alarm bells ringing.

It’s Monsieur Fudge for me – and 2/1 is an attractive price.

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