Beverley, Southwell (N.H.) and Punchestown (N.H.) this evening

Beverley stages its most important race of the year today, the listed Hilary Needler Stakes for 2yo fillies at 20.20 CET. This looks wide open with 9 of the 15 runners being last-time-out winners, and whoever scores here can certainly go for the Queen Mary at Royal Ascot with a decent chance. Our fancy is Don´t Tell Mary (Tom Dascombe/ Richard Kingscote), the only unbeaten filly in the field, but she needs to show further improvement. Angelina Ballerina (Alan Bailey/ Jimmy Quinn) looked unlucky last time at Newmarket and also has a chance, while the draw has not been kind to Little Scotland (Tim Easterby/ David Allan) and The Hermitage (Mark Johnston/ Joe Fanning); as a general rule, horses with a low number draw are at a big disadvantage over 5 furlongs here.

Some of the top jumps jockeys are in action at this evening´s Southwell meeting, and Richard Johnson, on Tim Vaughan´s Tigo, and Tony McCoy, on Jonjo O´Neill´s Charmahal, can fight out the finish to the handicap chase at 20.30. McCoy can also take the selling hurdle at 21.00 on Saif Sareea, who has not run for 19 months, but stands out on old form. In Ireland, there are huge fields at Punchestown´s N.H. meeting - 25 runners in each of the 5 hurdles races! The best race however is the 2 1/4 mile chase at 18.40, with only 7 runners; this can go to the youngest horse in the field, Jayo (Willie Mullins/ David Casey), an easy CD winner last time out.