Rudry Dragon at Southwell

The most interesting runner at Southwell today, at least from the German point of view, is Paul Blockley´s Rudry Dragon (Robert Winston), who runs in the class 4 handicap over 11 furlongs at 16.40, as he still holds an entry in Cologne´s group race on Sunday. He certainly has no chance at all at Cologne (in the unlikely event that he runs), but could win this off a rating of 73. Main danger could come from oldtimer Kylkenny (Hughie Morrison/ Travis Block), who despite his 13 years is never to be underestimated at this track, where he has already won 16 times. Easily the best race at Southwell is the class 2 mile handicap at 17.45 which is one of the hottest handicaps run here in a long time.

Four of the 8 runners ran well at Doncaster on the opening day of the turf season: Rio Riva (Julie Camacho/ Tom Eaves) was an excellent fourth of 21 in the LÖincoln, where Very Wise (William Haggas/ Jimmy Fortune) was 14th after leading early; the latter is now 5 lbs better off and could easily reverse the placings, especially as he has better all-weather form to his credit. Benandonner (Richard fahey/ Paul Hanagan) was an excellent runner-up in the Spring Mile, with Regal Parade (David and Adrian Nicholls) further back. The one they have to beat is Vince Smith´s Silver Hotspur (William Buick), who is having an amazing year. He has already run 11 times in 2008, winning 6 times, all of them here and despite a huge jump in the weights, must be taken seriously in this much better race.