Daryl Carter's Tips: Kitai 9/1 can claw in some Sunday cash

• Two Sunday bets from Daryl

• He says his NAP can make it a perfect 3-3 at Ponte

• Back the improving three-year-old to down Ouzo at Sandown

15:25 Pontefract - Back Kitai @ 9/110.00 1pt e/w

Kitai - 9/110.00 on the Betfair Sportsbook - has plenty to do on the ratings to land this Listed contest, it seems, but she will never have a better opportunity to get some black type now returned to her favoured Pontefract.

She is 2-2 at this venue, and her run here on her penultimate start when a ready winner clocked an excellent time figure - one that would suggest she is well up to this level - and she won with stacks in hand.

The conditions are almost identical today for her to run a repeat effort with a good draw in stall one, Joe Fanning in the plate and good ground.

She is unexposed at six furlongs and well worth forgiving her no-show when all the rage in the betting at Goodwood when stuck in the stalls and relinquishing all chance early on.

She was a very comfortable winner in an admittedly winnable race at Carlisle three starts back. Still, the time again, there was much better than the Listed event on the card, and she very much confirmed that with a dominant display here at Pontefract next time when up to Class 2 level against the boys.

She remains firmly on the upgrade and returns to what seems to be her optimum conditions from a perfect draw; she must go close but back her no shorter than 7/18.00.

17:45 Sandown - Back Metal Merchant @ 4/15.00 1pt

Ouzo is sure to go well today from a favoured draw at a course that he seems to relish and down in grade, but his strike rate of 0-19 since his last victory in 2020 is slightly off-putting when asked to back him at 5/23.50.

Instead, I want to be with the improving three-year-old Metal Merchant - 10/34.33 on the Betfair Sportsbook - who was pulled as a non-runner in the Racing League when on this column on Thursday, but the case still applies.

He has improved leaps and bounds this season and arrives very much in the groove, having caught the eye after he suffered a continuously denied passage at Goodwood.

That was his second consecutive eye-catching outing, having come from a mile off the pace at Ascot along with our recent (unlucky) Chelmsford second Imperial Ace, and he shaped the better of the two, so it bodes well the other went so close next time.

In the hope that Tom Marquand can ride him closer to the pace from a good draw in stall three, he should be making his presence felt in this company in receipt of six pounds from his elders, and he is handicapped to have a say.

He wasn't beaten far in the Britannia Stakes when travelling through the contest extremely strongly before hitting a flat spot and staying on at the finish.

His form stacks up well, and we are yet to see the best of him. Back him no shorter than 10/34.33.