Chris Dixon's tips for Monday: Street to strike at Wolverhampton

The weather has once again taken its toll on the racing programme in recent days and that’s the case again on Monday with the scheduled evening card at Wolverhampton supplemented by an additional meeting at Southwell.

The races don’t look especially deep at either venue, and finding bets at value prices doesn’t look too easy, so the three selections all have more than a touch of the obvious about them but can hopefully produce a profit on the day.

The case for Avenue Of Stars is a very straightforward and simple one – he’s a well handicapped horse having his first start under the care of Mick Appleby.

Mick has a phenomenal record with horses of this profile and having run his best race for a while when fourth on his final start for former connections, there has to be a good chance he builds on that run and gets back to top form here.

Street Parade has endured a barren spell since winning on his return from a break at Windsor in May but got back to the best off a falling mark when narrowly beaten here last time.

The handicapper has pushed him up 2lb for that but he’s only 1lb higher than his last winning mark and that form looks solid enough with the winner Watchable, and third placed Royal Birth, both running well to hit the places in Listed company on Saturday.

A tardy start meant he was poorly positioned last time and a truer pace might well have seen him land the spoils, so for all a similarly slow start here might be a worry, the presence of a couple of regular front runners in opposition could set the race up for him.

Although all of his best form is over five furlongs, he shapes like a horse who should be effective over 6f at this track.

Beau Geste did me a good turn when a winning selection for this column last time and the way he won there was in the manner of a horse with loads in hand of his mark.

Keen and held up off a steady pace, he gave away plenty of lengths when making his ground very wide on the turn for home but still managed to win, eventually scoring by a length. Given how much went wrong in the race, his true superiority over the opposition was masked and a rise of 4lb in the handicap likely underestimates him.

Clearly very progressive for his new yard, he should have more to offer and has more wins in him, including this race with a bit of luck.