N.H. racing at Newbury and Musselburgh

Obviously the best N.H. racing today is at Newbury, where the second day of the Hennessy meeting is staged, with the Grade Two novice chase at 15.10 CET the main feature. Yesterday´s racing was dominated by the powerful stables of Paul Nicholls and Nicky Henderson, and today should be no different, with Celestial Halo (Noel Fehily) and Spirit Level (Barry Geraghty) their candidates here.

Celestial Halo was much the better over hurdles and finished fourth in the Champion Hurdle, but has fallen on both his starts since, so is not bombproof, while Spirit Level has been since since winning a valuable handicap over hurdles at the Cheltenham Festival. Nicholls can take the opening 3yo hurdle with ex-French Dolatulo (Fehily), who can defy a 10lbs penalty after an impressive success on his British debut at Sandown, while the 3 mile handicap hurdle at 14.35 should go to Barafundle (Jennie Candlish/ Alan O´Keeffe), runner-up in a similar race at Haydock last week. The handicap chase over 2 miles 1 furlong at 15.45 looks very open, and 3 of the 10 runners are German-breds - top-weight First Stream (Henderson/ Geraghty), Passato (Jo Davis/ Ian Popham) and Suntini (Emma Lavelle/ Sam Thomas). The first-named may be the most likely of these, but none of them look well handicapped, and we prefer Mahuti (David Pipe/ Tom Scudamore) or Call me a Legend (Alan King/ Wayne Hutchin son).

At Musselburgh, Jago River (Howard Johnson/ Brian Hughes) would probably have finished second had he not tipped over at the last last time, and can gain recompense in the maiden hurdle at 14.50. Mini Beck (AM Thomas/ Anton Voy) is still a maiden at the age of 11, but looks the main danger, having been runner-up on numerous occasions. German-bred Bocciani (Dianne Sayer/ Johnny O´Farrell) has similar form figures but still has an each-way chance in the handicap hurdle at 15.25.