Horse racing tips: Monday, July 28
Monday's UK and Irish racing (Flat unless stated)
Flat
Ayr (2.00-5.15, Racing TV)
Yarmouth (2.15-4.55, Sky Sports Racing)
Windsor (5.30-8.40, Sky Sports Racing)
Southwell (5.50-9.00, Sky Sports Racing)
Mixed
Galway (5.10-8.20, Racing TV)
Ron Wood's selections
NAP
Crown Of Oaks (4.05, Ayr) 1pt win @ 10/11 with William Hill ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Other
Kelpie Grey (3.00, Ayr) 1pt win @ 11/4 with William Hill ⭐⭐⭐
Odds provided by William Hill and correct at the time of writing. Stars denote strength of selection (maximum five).
If you already have a William Hill account and are looking for a new bookmaker to use on this week's racing, check out more free bets from the best betting sites, reviewed by our experts
3.00 Ayr – Class 4 Handicap (7f; Racing TV)
KELPIE GREY was as good as ever when second in a Class 3 handicap over a mile at Ayr on his reappearance, a fine effort after 302 days off.
This drop in trip is no bad thing – he's a two-time course-and-distance winner – and he also drops in class. With the Jim Goldie stable in flying form, he has strong claims.
4.05 Ayr – Class 4 Handicap (1m 2f; Racing TV)
The William Haggas-trained CROWN OF OAKS disappointed when 1/3 favourite for a Redcar maiden last time out, but he has since been gelded and now steps up in trip, and he was so promising on his first two starts that he still makes plenty of appeal on his handicap debut.
It's fair to say the form of his reappearance at Newbury, where he finished third in a maiden, hasn't worked out. However, he went through that race like a good horse, shaping better than the bare result suggests, and he was entered in the 2,000 Guineas and the Dante at the time.
Haggas had won the same Newbury maiden the previous year with the subsequent Irish Champion Stakes winner Economics, and in 2022 he won it with My Prospero, who went on to win a Group 2.
Crown Of Oaks, a 260,000gns yearling, has an opening mark of 79, and he's a brother to English Oak whose peak official rating is 108.
When is the next big racing festival?
The week-long Galway Festival kicks off in Ireland today, and tomorrow it's Glorious Goodwood. Check out the latest Glorious Goodwood free bets and betting offers.
The latter is a five-day fixture and is set to feature Field Of Gold, possibly the best horse in the world, in the Sussex Stakes on Wednesday, one of three Group 1 races at the meeting.
What does NAP mean?
NAP is a word used in betting circles to describe a prediction that a tipster thinks has a particularly strong chance of winning.
Many horse racing tipsters pick out a 'NAP of the day', which is their favoured selection from all the races across the different meetings.
The term derives from the French card game Napoleon. When players of this game thought they had a particularly strong hand that they would win with, they would shout 'Napoleon'.
Star ratings explained
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - confident selection
⭐⭐⭐⭐ - strong fancy
⭐⭐⭐ - fair claims
⭐⭐ - tentative choice
⭐ - minimum confidence
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