Wetherby, Wincanton and other meetings

Outside Kempton, the best British racing today is to be found at Wetherby, Wincanton and Market Rasen. At Wincanton, the class 2 handicap hurdle over 2 34 miles at 14.15 CET is a hot race, with local trainer Paul Nicholls saddling two runners with chances, top weight Elusive Dream (Lam Heard) and Pride of Dulcote (Nick Scholfield), but the lightly weighted Galient (Nicky Henderson Marcus Foley) and Lupanar (Gary and Jamie Moore) look very dangerous. Best race at Wetherby is the Rowland Meyrick Chase, a valuable handicap over 3 miles 1 furlong at 14.45. Top weight Tidal Bay (Howad Johnson Denis O Regan) is the class act here, but over this trip he can be opposed by State of Play (Rvan Williams Paul Moloney) and Ollie Marn (Nigel Twiston Davies David England), first and second in a similar race her 8 weeks ago, and especially by Cloudy Lane (Donald McCain JasonMaguire), one of our long range fancies for the Grand National. This race is certain to have more bearing on that race than the so called Lincolnshire National over 3 12miles at 15.25 at Market Rasen. This is verty mucvh a race for specialsts, in which case Victory Gunner, whoi has won the event for the past 3 years, should score again, but on recent form Jim Bobs Girl (Tim Vaugn/ Charlie Poste) andKillard Point (Caroline Bailey Andrew Thornton) can be preferred in a very open race.