Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Nottingham, Worcester (N.H.) and Killarney (Ireland) this evening

Best race this evening is the listed Ruby Stakes over 8 1/2 furlongs at Killarney at 19.50 CET. This is quite an open affair with 13 runners, but the sole British raider Four Winds, owned by the Queen, trained by Michael Bell and partnered by Jamie Spencer has as good a chance as any. Aidan O´Brien´s top three jockeys are in action in York, so he has Shaun Levey on Poet and his teenage son Joseph on Windsor Palace, but on form they are only fighting for place money. However AP and JP can pick up the valuable 2yo handicap at 19.20 with top-weight Mikael Glinka, who created a positive impression when winning at Galway and is better than a handicapper. Several of the leading British jockeys travel on from York to Nottingham´s evening meeting, and Ryan Moore partners Insolence and Enact for Sir Michael Stoute at 19.30 and 20.30 respectively; however these are both quite tricky handicaps. There is jumps racing at Worcester with some quite large fields. Best horse on view is probab ly Always Bold (Donald McCain/ Jason Maguire), who has a huge weight in the 3 mile novice hurdle at 19.10. However he has won both his hurdles starts with the greatest of ease, has good recent flat form to his credit, and could well outclass this evening´s opposition.