Newcastle, Plumpton (N.H.) and Towcester (N.H.)

An average Monday today, with 3 meetings this afternoon. Mark Johnston, who contonus ijn trmndous formn, looks the trainer to follow at Newcastle. Touchdown (Joe Fanning) and Box Office (Royston Ffrench) can both win on their seasonal debuts at 15.50 CET and 16.50 respectively,whil Thebes (Ffrench) also has prospects in the class 2 handicap over 6 furlongs at 17.20. This is the best race of the day and looks quite open with 11 runners. We like the look of Excusez-Moi (Ruth Carr/ Andrew Elliott) here, who won well last time out at Musselburgh and is moving up in grade now. Johnston also has the form choice Gilded Ag (Ffrench) in the 1 1/2 mile maiden at 18.20, but Alan Swinbank s bumper winner Caerlavarock (Peter Mcdonald) is expectd to win this.

There are also 2 N.H. meetings this afternoon, and Jonjo O´Neill´s ex-German Donaldson (Tony McCoy) is our best bet of the day in the opening novice chase at 15.10 at Towcester. This is his first attempt over fences, but he is easily the classiest runner in the small field. McCoy can cmplete a double with Oliver Sherwood´s Superrollercoaster, who has top weight in the 3 mile handicap chase at 17.40. Last time out he was a close second over this CD to Caroline Keevil´s Deep Pockets; that one runs today in the 3 1/4 mile handicap chase at 17.30 at Plumpton, so could give the form a timely boost. From the German point of view, the most interesting runner at Plumpton is Erika Mäder´s Zuckerpuppe, who runs in the maiden hurdle at 15.30 with Andrew Thornton in the saddle. She was quite a decent 3yo in Germany in 2007, running 4th in the Schwarzgold-Rennen,although she afterwards rather lost her way. However this is a very modest race, and if she is in form and can jump, she must ha ve a fair chance.