Horse Racing Tips, Saturday 15th January

14:20 Lingfield – Hold Tight – 2 point win 5/4 (Ladbrokes)

Saeed bin Suroor’s four year old has shown plenty of promise on his two racecourse starts to date. First time out when winning a moderate looking, 10 runner maiden at Leicester back in October. The gelding showed both speed and a good attitude to come home a decisive winner that day, finishing almost three lengths in front of the runner-up with the remainder of the field well strung out behind.

Last time out he was beaten only by half a length over 7f at Lingfield, on handicap debut. Again he showed plenty of speed and having travelled into the race well, hit the front just over a furlong out. The 7f that day may just have stretched him a tad and had that race been over today’s trip of 6f he probably would have won. Signs of greenness were still evident, but there is no doubt he should have learnt plenty from that experience and in what looks an easier race here, certainly in terms of strength in depth, he could certainly improve further. On top of this, claiming jockey, Alistair Rawlinson takes a handy 3lb off which makes the gelding look nicely placed at the weights. Overall, dropping into a slightly less demanding contest, over what should be a more suitable trip, this Godolphin runner really ought to go be going forward and if doing so could prove hard to beat.

14:55 Lingfield – Melvin The Grate – 1 point each way 5/1 (Ladbrokes)

Third in this race last year, Andrew Balding’s, Melvin The Grate has long been a consistent runner in these sort of events, particularly when racing on the all-weather. A winner in a similar contest over course and distance back in December 2014, only once has he finished outside of the places in five runs at Lingfield. Last time out – in what looked a slightly better race – the gelding finished third over C&D. Breaking slowly, giving away roughly three lengths, he was never well placed and did most of his best work late on to take a respectable third place.

Off 1lb lower today and under the stewardship of top all-weather jockey, Adam Kirby, Balding’s runner looks like an appealing prospect. Admittedly a large part of the task will be getting the start right, but if Kirby can bounce him out and take up a good position early on, this consistent runner can certainly get involved at the business end and looks well worth an each way punt.