Tuesday´s racing

Tuesday is often the weakest day of the week, and so it is today, with very modest sport on offer at Catterick and Chepstow this afternoon and Southwell (all-weather) this evening as well as jumps racing in the evening from Ffos Las in Wales and Roscommon in Ireland. An interesting runner at Catterick is Campos (Shane Kelly) in the 2yo maiden at 15.00 CET, who is trained in Ireland by Tommy Stack.

As it is his only runner here, one must assume that he is serious about winning. There are only 4 runners in the 1 13/4 mile handicap at 16.30 here; Alan Swinbank has won this race 3 times in the past 4 years and he now saddles Sir Royal (Tony Eaves), whose main opponent should be Bergonzi(Howard Johnson/ Paul Mulrennan), who won here over 2 miles last time.

Richard Hannon and Richard Hughes continue to carry all before them and could be in for another good afternoon at Chepstow. Miss Dutee in the 2yo handicap at 16.15 and Our Drama Queen in the fillies handicap at 17.45 have obvious chances, and even Magical Star, although she has shown very little so far, could get placed in the opening 2yo maiden at 15.15; Hughes can also score on Jeremy Noseda´s Advertisement at 17.15, who is overdue for a win.

The best race at Southwell this evening is the 5 furlongs handicap at 20.30, which looks quite open. Lucky Numbers (Paul Green/ James Sullivan) won last time and can perhaps follow up at the expense of Captain Carey (Malcolm Saunders/ Tom McLaughlin), who was not beaten far in a hotter race at the Curragh last time.
Tony McCoy has a full book of rides at Ffos Las this evening and should win a couple of races, while in Ireland the maiden hurdle at 19.15 at Roscommon, despite a huge field, should mainly concern Northern Rocker and Paintmaker who were third and fourth last week in a better race at Galway.