Monday, August 10, 2009

All-weather racing this afternoon

This afternoon´s racing in the UK suggests that the summer is coming to an end, with only all-weather racing at Southwell and Wolverhampton. On the whole the racing is pretty dire, but at least there are two class 3 handicaps at Southwell to lighten the gloom. The first, over 1 1/2 miles at 16.15 CET, sees a rare runner from the Sir Michael Stoute stable at this track- Kensington Oval (Jimmy Fortune), who finished third last time out; in the same race Lochiel (Peter Mcdonald) slipped in the stalls and virtually took no part. He is one of two runners trained by Alan Swinbank, the other being Ella (Robert Winston) who won two races last summer, but has not been seen since. We prefer Jadalee (Ger Butler/ Sane Kelly), an easy Newmarket winner over a longer trip last time. Most of the 7 runners in the 5 furlongs handicap at 17.15 are CD specialists, including Pawan (Ann Stokell) and Tartartafutata (James Given/ Paul Mulrennan), who have been below form on their recent starts but can be expected to do much better today back on their favourite track. Some leading trainers are also in action at Wolverhampton, including Paul Cole, who can take the 2yo handicap at 16.30 with top-weight Silver Symphony (Eddie Ahern), and Jeremy Noseda, who has good prospects in the 7 furlongs handicap at 17.00 with the lightly-raced Kyleene (William Buick).