Ripon and Southwell

This afternoon´s racing is very mediocre, and the class 3 handicap over 6 furlongs at 16.30 CET at Ripon is by some margin the best race of the day. This is a very open affair, with almost all the 9 runners in good form. Excusez-Moi (Ruth Carr/ Paul Mulrennan), winner of 3 of his last 5 racs inluding this CD, course specialist Van Bossed (David and Adrian Nicholls) and Vhujon (David Evans/ Paul Hanagan) are our three against the field. An interesting runner at Ripon is ex-German Andorn (P.Kirby/Lee Vickers) in the 10 furlongs handicap at 16.00. He showed next to nothing for Barney Curley, but is now very leniently handicapped on his first start for new connections. At Southwell´s all-weather meeting, 6 of the 7 races are class 6, the exception being the class 5 handicap for 3yo´s over 7 furlongs at 16.45. This is very tricky, with our short list comprising Avoir Choisi (Peter Chapple-Hyam/ Alan Munro), Desire to Excel (Paul Cole/ George Baker), Arachnophobia (Pat Eddery/ Ti m Queally) and Michael Jarvis´ CD winner Silent Hero, Philip Robinson´s only ride here.