Fakenham (N.H.), Folkestone (N.H.) and Wolverhampton (a.w.)

Very modest sport on offer at today´s 3 meetings and generally small fields as well. The only glimmer of class is offered by Nicky Henderson, who saddles 4 runners at Fakenham, all ridden by stable jockey Barry Geraghty and all with winning possibilities. Working Title, in the novice chase at 14.20 CET, and The Polomoche in the beginners chase at 15.50 both have excellent chances, while Strawberry, top weight in the handicap chase at 15.20 and the Queen´s Pipe Banner in the maiden hurdle at 16.20 also have good prospects. At Folkestone, where the going will be very heavy, we expect the penalised German-bred Quartano (Warren Greatrex/ Paddy Brennan) to follow up his recent win in the novice hurdle at 14.30, while the most interesting runner here could be Gary Moore´s Numide (Tony McCoy) in the beginners chase half an hour earlier. This one-time useful flat horse (5th in the French Derby!) started off in good style over hurdles and then rather lost form; he jumped badly on his chase debut, but is still the class act in this field, and the booking of AP is an obvious advantage. There are bigger fields on the all-weather at Wolverhampton, but the standard is very low, and 7 of the 8 races are low-grade handicaps, the "best" being a class 5 race over 2 miles at 17.10. Bottom-weight Follow the Dream (Karen George/ Darryll Holland) and Zuwaar (Ian Williams/ Eddie Ahern) both ran placed here last time and could fight out the finish. Elswhere we fancy Grudge (Ollie Pears/ Franny Norton) and Cayman Fox (Jimmy Moffatt/ Matthew Lawson), both overdue for a win, can take the two divisions of the 5 furlongs handicap at 15.40 and 18.40 respectively.