Saturday’s tips: Garcia can Bowl over Haydock rivals

David Metcalf | May 20, 2016

Garcia can strike gold in Silver Bowl at Haydock

Garcia has an ultra-progressive profile and can make light of a rise in the weights to land the valuable Silver Bowl Stakes on a cracking card at Haydock (15:05).

The Richard Fahey trained gelding shaped with plenty of promise when third on debut and duly showed the benefit of that experience when landing a 10-runner maiden at York by a length.

Garcia still showed distinct sighs of greenness, but showed a good attitude to get up close home to score with a bit more in hand than the winning margin suggests.

It was a most taking performance which suggested the son of Paco Boy would make up into a useful sort as a three-year-old, and that view was confirmed when Garcia made a winning return to action at Ripon over an extended 7f.

Potential pattern performer in the making

After being slowly away, Garcia soon recovered to track the leaders and after being ridden to take up the running a furlong from home stayed on strongly to beat Arab Poet by 1 3/4 lengths.

The runner-up has some useful form to his name as a juvenile and some pundits had him down as potentially a stone ahead of his opening handicap mark.

Given the way in which Garcia readily disposed of Arab Poet, it suggests that the selection is tons ahead of the assessor. A 6lb rise in the weights is unlikely to be enough to stop Garcia going in again if that is the case.