Great Leighs, Newcastle and Warwick

Three flat meetings this afternoon in the U.K. and the best quality sport is at Newcastle, on the opening day of its big 3-day meeting with the Northumberland Plate on Saturday its main feature. Best races today are the Seaton Delaval Handicap over a mile at 16.30 CET and the 10 furlongs listed race for fillies half an hour later. Both of them could go to Hamdan al Maktoum homebreds ridden by Martin Dwyer. In the former, Tazeez, trained by John Gosden is very lightly raced but won in great style last time out at Yarmouth and is almost certainly much better than a handicapper. Ghaidaa, trained by Michael Jarvis, was equally impressive when winning at Newbury, and although this is a steep jump in class, should be good enough to take the listed race; she is certainly bred for the job, being a half-sister to an Oaks winner out of an Oaks winner. At Warwovk there is also a listed race for fillies, this time over 7 furlongs for 3yo only at 16.50. Kylayne (Paul d´Arcy/ John Egan) looks the answer here, having run two good races at group level. Lady Aquitaine (Brian Meehan/ Richard Hughes) is the highest-rated runner here, having finished 7th of 14 in the Cheveley Park last October, but she has not run since, while John Gosden´s Frivolity (Jimmy Fortune) and last-time-out winner Lesson in Humility (Karl Burke/ Andrew Elliott) are also not without chances. At Great Leights, Benllech (Michael Wigham/ Simon Whitworth) is coming off a s-month-break, but can still defy top weight in the class 3 handicap at 16.10. He has never run here, but has an excellent record at the other all-weather tracks, having won 5 of his last 7 starts and finished runner-up on the other two occasions. There are only 6 runners in the mile conditions race for 3yo´s at 17.10 but is still quite a trappy race. Almajd (Sir Michael Stoute/ Kerrin McEvoy) is a half-brother to Grpoup One winner Alhaafh, is making his seasonal debut and must cope with Tasdeer (Michael Jarvis/ Philip Robinson) - another well-bred Hamdan runner -and Gaspar van Wittel (Simon Callaghan/ Jamie Spencer), slightly disappointing so far but still highly regarded.