Bath, Wolverhampton and Newton Abbot (N.H.) this afternoon

Flat racing this afternoon at Bath and Wolverhampton (all-weather) but nothing to get too excited about. At Bath, where the fields are on the small side, Blackdown Boy (Rod and James Millman) and Dungannon(Andrew Balding/ Liam Keniry) reopposes in the 5 furlongs maiden at 15.30 CET. Last time out they finished runner-up and fifth respectively at Salisbury, but Dungannon was favourite that day and can take his revenge.

However Visual Element (Roger Charlton/ Steve Drowne) - whose owner Khaled Abdullah is having a fantastic season- can possibly beat them both. Chrltpon and Drowne can also score with Golden Rock in the mil handoap at 17.00. Otherwise at Bath, we hope that course specialist Where´s Susie (Michael Madgwick/ Robert Havlin) can repeat last year´s success in the fillies staying handicap at 16.00.

The fields are bigger at Wolverhampton, and winners even harder to find. Kevin Ryan has booked Paul Hanagen to ride Nellie Ellis in the 2yo maiden at 15.40 and Jigajig in the 3yo handicap an hour later, and both should go well. Most of the races here are over sprint distances, and the 5 furlongs handicap at 17.10 has 13 runners, almost all of them CD winners. Almaty Express (John Weymes/ Freddie Tylicki) is one of them; he lost form completely, but showed a glimmer of improvement last time and is now racing off a very low mark.
Oedipe (Nicky Henderson/ Tony McCoy), a very useful chaser, is still a maiden over hurdles and tries again to score in this discipline in the opening race at 15.20 at Newton Abbot, where Zakatar (Philip Hobbs/ Tom O´Brien) is th obvious danger. The same teams are in opposition in the handicap hurdle at 16.20, in which we just prefer Henderson´s Working Title to Hobbs´ Shalamiyr. Our best bet here is Foreign King (Seamus Mullins/ Jimmy Derham); he was a very easy winner last week and a 7 lbs penalty should not stop him scoring again at 16.50.