Folkestone, Hereford, Redcar

It is not a public holiday in Britain today, so there is a normal programme with 3 cards this afternoon and 3 this evening (including Ireland), all featuring very low level racing. This afternoon´s racing come from Folkestone and Redcar (flat) and Hereford (N.H.). At the latter track, Alan King´s Oh Crick (Robert Thornton), who was quite a useful hurdler, is expected to get of the mark over fences at the first time of asking in the beginners chase at 15.40 CET. There are big fields at Hereford (6 of the 7 races have 14 or more runners), with16 lining up in the mafres novice hurdle half an hour later, but this should only concern Arctic Magic (Wilf Kittow/ Paddy Brennan)and Hora (Nicky Henderson/ Felix de Giles). At Redcar, where the going is very soft after yesterday´s heavy rain, (and there will be lots of non-runners as a result), two likely winning favourites are Alan Swinbank´s Stevie Thunder (PJMcDonald) in the 3yo mile handicap at 16.00 (raised 8 lbs for a very easy win of the soft 3 weeks ago) and Storyland (William Haggas/ Kerrin McEvoy), who created a favourable impression when 7th of 15 in a good Newmarket maiden last October and can take the 3yo maiden over 7 furlongs at 16.30. At Folkestone the 6 furlongs handicap at 16.50 could develop into a match between the two top-weights Savile´s Delight (Tom Dascombe/ Robert Kingscote) and After the Show (Rae Guest/ Chris Catlin), who is going for a four-timer. James Fanshawe´s Nutkin (Oscar Urbina) should win the concluding 10 furlongs handicap at 18.20.