5 N.H. meetings today

Jumping now takes over in the U.K. and Ireland, with no flat racing on turf for the next 5 months. There are 5 meetings today, two in England, one in Wales and two in Ireland, where Navan stages easily the best racing of the day. Main feature is the Grade Two Fortria Chase over 2 miles at 16.00 CET, which sees the reppearance of Big Zeb (Colm Murphy/ Barry Geraghty), who won this race last year and went on to win the Champion Chase at Cheltenham, beating Forpadytheplasterer, who then finished second again to Golden Silver at Punchestown. Golden Silver is then the obvious danger, although trainer Willie Mullins has not really top form so far this season. He booked Paul Townend for the ride before knowing about poor Ruby Walsh´s injury at Down Royal yesterday. Ruby broke his leg in two places and will be out of action for several weeks. He misses several good rides at Navan today, including Mullins´ smart Mourad in the Grade Two hurdle at 14.25. However our selection here is Ju mbo Rio (Edward O´Grady/ Andrew McNamara, while German-bred Aitmatov, an easy winner last time, faces much stronger opposition now.

Another German-bred who could run well in Ireland today is Belord (JJ Walsh/ Keith Coleman) who goes for the maiden hurdle at 14.35 at Limerick.

At Ffos Las in Wales, German-bred Moon over Miami (Charlie Mann/ Noel Fehily) could be an interesting bet in the 2 mile handicap chase at 15.45. He has top weight here and has not won for 3 years, but has been running in much better company.

At Hereford, the handicap hurdle at 16.05 looks the most interesting event. Ruthenoise (Nicky Henderson/ Andrew Tinkler), who made a satisfactory comeback from a long layoff recently, is our selection, but faces strong opposition from top-weight Asturienne and bottom-weight Babilu.

Tony McCoy is riding at Market Rasen and can win the novice chase at 15.55 on Diaco for Jonjo O´Neill. He rides Whaboutya for the same stable at 16.30; this one is a bit of a dodgy jumper, but if he gets round safely, can win.