Brighton, Great Leighs and Sandown

The other 3 meetings in the U.K. today pale by comparison to the card at Doncaster, and eenb Sandown can only offer moderate sport. The listed race here over 7 furlongs at 16.30 CET is easily the best race outside Doncaster, and although there are only 7 runners, it looks quite tricky. Godolphin´s Dijeer (Ted Durcan) is a consistent front-runner and after finishing second 5 timesy running finally ran out an easy winner last time at Newmarket. The ex-Italian Icelandic (Frank Sheridan/ Mirco Demuro) was an easy winner on his first British start, over this trip at Warwick, and is an obvious danger, as is the lightly-raced and promising Atlantic Sport (Mick Channon/ Edward Creighton). The Brighton card, which substitutes for the abandoned meeting at Chepstow, is very modest.

It is a long way from Mark Johnston´s base at Middleham to the south coast, so his two 2yo maidens, Liberation at 15.10 and Alcalde at 15.45, both ridden by Royston Ffrench, should be taken seriously, while John Gosden´s Star Rocker (Richard Havlin) looks a good thing to win the 3yo maiden over 1 1/2 miles at 16.55 after two excellent but slightly unlucky runs. At Great Leighs this evening, where they are racing under floodlights for the second time, there are some huge fields, in many cases the maximum allowed of 16, as in the 2yo fillies maiden over 6 furlongs at 21.20, where 9 of the runners are newcomers. Of those that have run, Dream Date (Willie Haggas/ Michael Hills), fourth at Kempton last week, and Le Reve Royale (Geoff Oldroyd/ Daniel Tudhope), third at Beverley 4 weeks ago, look best, but it would be no surprise to see one of the others make a winning debut.