Winter Derby at Lingfield

today´s Lingfield meeting is the top all-weather fixture of the year, featuring the Lingfield Winter Derby (Group Three) over 10 furlongs at 16.05 CET, as well as two listed races, including the Hever Sprint over 5 furlongs at 15.05 with a German runner, Mario Hofer´s Mood Music, for whom champion jockey Ryan Moore has been booked. Mood Music, who has some useful French form to his credit and recently beat the smart Maradhono easily at Dortmund, has a definite chance here. Best of his 9 opponents should be Matsunosuke (Barney Coogan/ Luke Morris), whi has been on the go all winter and has rewarded his connections with 5 wins, including twice this CD, and Arganil (Kevin Ryan/ Neil Callan), who has won 5 of his last 6 starts, but is running for the first time at this track. The Winter Derby with 12 runners looks wide open, although Premio Loco (Chris Wall/ George Baker) looks certain to start a warm favourite. He has won his last 5 all-weather starts in good style, but these ra ces have all been at a mile and he is untested at today´s distance. Re Barolo (Marco Botti/ John Egan) won the trial for this race from Suits Me (Tom Tate/ Micky Fenton), but the latter could well reverse the form todayon 3 lbs better terms. Scintillo (Richard Hannon/ Richard Hughes) was an easy winter over 1 1/2 miles at Kempton on Wednesday and is not out of it, nor is Halicarnassus (Mick Channon/ Tony Culhane), who showed excellent speed to win in Dubai earlier this year. John Gosden, who has already saddled a big all-weather winner this week, runs Bronze Cannon (Ryan Moore) and he is another one with chances. The other listed race is for 3yo´s over 7 furlongs at 15.35. There are 14 runners, some already with good form this season, while others make their seasonal debuts, so that it is hard to say how the race will pan out. On 2008 form, the two likeliest candidates are Damien (Barry and Michael Hills) and Elnawin (Richard Hannon/ Pat Dobbs), both of whom ran well in grou p company last year.

Betting forecast:
1. Race: El Dececy - New Star - Fremen
2. Race: Matsunosuke - Arganil - Judd Street
3. Race: Damien - Elnawin - Nashmiah
4. Race: Premio Loco - Re Barolo - Without A Prayer
5. Race: Debussy - Light Dubai - Makhaaleb
6. Race: Distinctive Image - Sgt Schultz - Formation
7. Race: Aeroplane - Atlantic Story - Abbondanza
8. Race: Jesse James - Legislate - Princability