Beverley and Wolverhampton

The day´s other meetings, at Beverley this afternoon and on the all-weather at Wolverhampton this evening, are of much lower standard. Beverley, racing for the first time in 2008, features a 5 furlong sprint handicap at 16.20 CET as its main event. As always, punters should pay attention to the effects of the draw here, but generally horses with a low number are at a severe disadvantage. Fire up the Band (David Nicholls/ Silvestre de Sousa) has won both his 2008 starrs, but they were modest all-weather claimers and this is much tougher. Caribbean Coral (John Quinn/ Graham Gibbons) ran well at Musselburth recently, with Melalchrist (Kevin Ryan/ Paul Mulrennan) well behind, but the latter is a CD specialist with a good draw and must be given another chance. Mark Johznston´s William Blake (Robert Winston) is unbeaen so far and can take the 3yo 10 furlongs handicap at 17,30 on his first start on turf. At Wolverhampton, the best race is the class 4 handicap over 7 furloongs at 21.50; Divertimenti (Charles Dore/ Robert Winston) was an easy winer recently over this CD from Count Ceprano (Mark Usher/ Richard Smith) but the latter is now 5 lbs better off and could reverse the form this time.