Towcester, Lingfield and Wolverhampton

Typical Monday cards at today´s three British meetings, over jumps at Towcester and on the all-weather at Lingfield and Wolverhampton. All the top flat jockeys are now back from their winter travels and Lingfield will certainly be pleased to greet Frankie Dettori, Ryan Moore and rising star William Buick, among others. The best race here is the 3yo handicap over 7 furlongs at 16.40 CET.Only 7 runners, but a hot race; 5 of them are last-time-out winners, 2 are still unbeaten, and it would be no suprise to see some of these runners contesting much better races before long. Secretive (Mark Johnston/ Dettori) is one of the unbeaten ones, having won at odds-on on his debut in December, while bottom-weight Progress (Jeremy Noseda/ Buick) seems to have been given a very lenient mark. Top-weight Rjeef (Clive Brittain/ Seb Sanders) has already won a handicap, but may be facing an impossible task here.

Whatever happens here, Frankie should not go home empty-handed as Neil Wilson´s Abbondanza should certainly win the seller at 15.10. He is rated 106, i.e. listed class, and although he has not run up to this mark in recent outings, it should not be forgotten that he won 3 successive races here in March 2009. Another Lingfield course specialist is Kipchak (Conor Dore/Liam Keniry), who has won 5 of his 6 starts here; although he is dropping back in distance, that should not stop him defying top weight in the 6 furlongs handicap at 16.10.
Wolverhampton on the other hand can boast Kieren Fallon and Jamie Spencer and both could score this afternoon - the former on Ed Dunlop´ s Red Gulch in the 7 furlongs maiden at 15.50 and the latter on Kevin Ryan´s Breathless Kiss in the 6 furlongs handicap for 3yo´s at 16.50.

Easily the best betting race of the day is the 3 miles handicap hurdle at 17.00 at Towcester, where almost any of the 14 runners could win. Even if we leave out top-weight Little George (Alan King/ Robert Thornton) in view of the stable form, we still have 4 last-time-out winners and several more who ar due for a win. Dr. Hart (Vic Dartnall/ Giles Hawkins) won well last time but would not want any more rain, and our preference is for Deep Pockets (Caroline Keevil/ Ian Popham) - the only runner in the field who has won over CD - and Ballyvesey (Peter Bowen/ Richard Johnson).