Horse racing tips: Keep well at Clonmel with these 4 Frank Hickey picks

14.00 – Farmix @ 6/4 

Farmix has shown a reasonable level ability in his three starts to date, fourth in a Punchestown bumper behind a few nice types, before two seconds over hurdles here. The first of those was when a distant second to the useful Lord Royal and last time dropped back to two miles he was second to Groody Rover.

Groody Rover since won easily on his handicap debut off a mark of 120 and will likely be rated 130 or so when reassessed by the handicapped. Farmix was only four lengths behind him last time and this looks a race with little depth to it. Collagh Park looks the danger, but I would be disappointed if Farmix wasn’t open to a bit more progression than that one.

15.30 – Global Fert @ 8/1

A tricky little beginners’ chase for horses that have a hurdles rating of 109 and below.

I’m going to take a chance on Global Fert on his first start for Declan Queally. He’s a trainer on the up and there is every chance that he might be able to sweeten up the 10-year-old whose peak hurdles rating was 105.

He will need to improve, but he is very-lightly raced for a 10-year-old, This race isn’t very strong and at the prices he looks worth a small each way play.

16.00 – Death Duty @ 6/4

A pretty decent race here but it does look to concern Bachasson and Death Duty who both ran with credit at Cheltenham earlier in the month. Bachasson was sixth in the Coral Cup over hurdles but hasn’t run over fences since falling in the 2018 Gold Cup.

Death Duty was tenth in the Brown Advisory Chase at the Festival, but his finishing position doesn’t tell the full story. He was very well backed late in the day and then travelled really powerfully through the race, so much so that he traded just over 7/4 in the run coming to the turn. But he just weakened out of things from there.

He was a Grade One winner as a novice over both hurdles and fences and while he won’t get back to winning Grader One races, he might be able to win his first race since December 2017.

17.00 – Stand Off @ 8/1 

This looks a tidy little bumper for the track and the early money is for Tony Mullins’ Kilcruit. However, Stand Off is worth a few bob each-way for Philip Fenton. His half-brother Line Break is a bumper winner after just two starts and Stand Off made a very pleasing debut at the Punchestown festival last season, finishing fourth in a nice race.

The winner, Front View is rated 135 over hurdles. The second Jungle Junction has won over hurdles and would likely to be rated 130 when he gets a mark, while the third Farceur Du Largeis is rated 120 over hurdles. The slight concern in that Stand Off has been off the track for nearly a year, but were he to build on that run here, he would look a player at a fair price.

*Prices are correct at time of publishing but are subject to change.