Brighton, Newton Abbot and Southwell

with York off, also the opening day of the festival at Tralee (Ireland), only Brighton now races this afternoon, with evening N.H. racing from Newton Abbot and Southwell. It will be interesting to see if any of the top jockeys due to ride at York are now switched to the very low-level meeting at Brighton, but Seb Sanders was due to ride there anyway and has two good rides in Ralph Beckett´s Billy Hot Rocks in the seller at 15.35 CET and Limelight for his boss Sir Mark Prescott in the 1 1/2 mile handicap for 3yo´s at 17.20. Best race at Newton Abbot, were the ground will be heavy, is the class 3 handicap chase over 2 milöes at 19.40. Six runners, but quite an open affair, with top-weight Ease the Way (Evan Williams/ Donal Fahy) and Nasca de Thaix (Paddy Brennan), now trained by owner Peter Kelsall, both with chances, while Genghis (Peter Moore/ Jamie Moore) attempts to end a long and frustrating losing sequence. At Southwell, Milton Harris and Dave Crosse can combine to win tw o races, with the German-bred Salinas in the handicap chase at 19.25 and with the good flat horse (Ebor 2006 winner) Mudawin in the maiden hurdle at 20.55. Another interesting German-bred running here is Faraday in the conditional jockeys handicap hurdle at 19.55. Most dangerous opponent in a large field is Barney Curley´s Faith and Reason, who like Faraday, has not run over hurdles for a long time but is fit from the flat. All these horses need fast ground, but it appears that Southwell has missed most of the bad weather.