All-weather racing today

Plenty of all-weather action today, with racing at Kempton and Lingfield in England and Dundalk in Ireland. The Kempton card opens with a very tricky 5 furlongs handicap at 15.20 CET. Top-weight Feeling Foxy (James Given/ James Sullivan) has an obvious chance in this company, but we prefer Picansort (BR Johnson/ Jack Mitchell), who showed improved form to win a maiden this CD last time and starts handicapping off a realistic mark. GermAn-bred All the Winds (Sam Lycett/ Russell Kennemore) won over this CD last time and can follow up in the 10 furlongs handicap at 16.20; the danger could be Kidlat (Alan Bailey/ Graham Gibbons), who seems to be coming back to form and is well handicapped. Kennemore could possibly complete a double on Milton Bradley´s top-weight Dancing Welcome in the 7 furlongs handicap at 18.50, but our best bet here is Red Rhythm (Luca Cumani/ Jean-Pierre Guillambert) in the 6 furlongs maiden at 16.50.

The jockey to follow at Lingfield could be Jamie Spencer, who could win the 1 1/2 mile handicap at 15.10 and Norman Orpen, the only 3yo in the field for the 7 furlongs handicap half an hour later. The well-bred Cheyne Walk (Jeremy Noseda/ Hayley Turner) has never run and therefore very much an unknown quantity; however if he has any ability at all then he should win the 10 furlongs maiden at 16.10 as the opposition looks very weak.

The best race at Dundalk is the mile handicap at 17.00, where any of the 10 runners could win. However the three top-weights Banna Boirche (Mike Halford/ Shane Foley), Boynagh Joy (J Halpin/ Sean Levey) and Dagindar (Eddie Lynam/ Fran Berry) are all in great form and are all CD specialists, so one of them will probably win. Otherwise it might pay to follow Joseph O´Brien, Aidan´s teenage son, who still has a chance of being crowned champion Irish apprentice for 2010. He has several fancied mounts, including the 2yo´ s Pirate Chest and Alexander Pope in the first two races, both trained by his father.