Ayr and Newbury this afternoon

The best race in the U.K., today is the Arc Trial at Newbury at 15.45 CET. Like the rest of the Newbury card, it is sponsored by Dubai Duty Free but the 1 mile 3 furlongs Group Three in unlikely to have much effect on the Arc itself. Easily the best horse in the field is Look Here (Ralph Beckett/ Jim Crowley) and in theory the 2008 Oaks winner, in receipt of weight from all her 5 opponents, should win this easily, but she has not won since her classic success. Her main dangers should be Halicarnassus (Mick Channon/ Alan Munro), who put up his best-ever performamce when winning in Turkey at the beginning of the month,and Frankie Dettori´s mount Campanologist from the red-hot Godolphin stable. Godolphin also has an excellent chance of taking the Haynes, Hanson and Clark Conditions Stakes for 2yo´s over 7 furlongs with the German-bred Ameer, who created a very positive impression when winning on his debut at Newmarket.

The listed race over 7 furlongs at 16.55 should go to Stimulation (Hughie Morrison/ Darryll Holland), not beaten far in a Group Two over this trip at Doncaster last week. However that was his first race for a year so the bounce factor could be a problem. The Godolphin pair Huntdown (Dettori) and Ashram (Ted Durcan) look the dangers. Ayr is gearing up for its biggest day of the year tomorrow and today´s main feature is the listed Harry Rosebery Stakes over 5 furlongs for 2yo´s at 16.30. Several of these ran in last week´s Flying Childers at Doncaster, Mister Manannan (David and Adrian Nicholls) coming out best in third place and theoretically he should win this. Skylla (John Holt/ Jerry O´Dwyer) has never yet been out of the first two and looks a big threat. The big betting race here is the Bronze Cup, a handicap over 6 furlongs at 17.05 with 25 runners.

Although this is only the third division (the Gold and Silver Cups are run tomorrow) it is still a decent race in its own right, but very difficult indeed and made mo re complicated by thre fact that these horses have often run against each other and that several trainers are multiply-represented. David Nicholls,a specialist in such events, has 5 runners, with son Adrian partnering Silaah, while in-form Richard Fahey runs three, with stable jockey Paul Hanagan on Dark Lane. However anything is possible here and the effect of the draw is still unclear.