Taunton, Lingfield and Southwell

More low grade racing today, but at least Taunton, the sole jumps fixture, is graced by the presence of Ruby Walsh, who has 3 rides for Paul Nicholls. Bold Addition in the novice hurdle at 15.20 CET and Qozak in the novice chase half an hour later, should certainly win, but the chance of Shacklesborough in the 3 mile handicap hurdle at 17.20 is less obvious. However the Ruby factor mans that he is likely to start favourite.

Paul Nicholls has booked the claimer James Cowley for Teshali in the handicap hurdle at 16.20 and his good amateur Ryan Mahon for Earth Planet in the chase over 4 1/4 miles (!) at 16.50; the latter has never raced at anything like this distance before, but if he gets the trip, must go close.

Easily the best race at the two all-weather meetings is the handicap over 1 3/4 miles at 17.00 at Southwell. 7 runners hre and all of them in good form, including Parhelion (Derek Haydn Jones/ Jack Mitchell) who defeated Calculatung (Mark Usher/ Rachael Knüller) over this CD last time; at the reveised terms there is little between them. La Estrella (Don Cantillon/ Dane O´Neill) has an excellent record here and after a break of almost 2 years has come back this season to win 4 successive races, all here and 2 over this distance, but now meets better opposition. Mush Mir (James Boyle/ Steven Craine) has won his last 3 races, all here, but our fancy is top-weight Exemplary (Mark Johnston/ Silvestre de Sousa), who is going for hat-trick and may have too much class for the others. Ed Dunlop has a good strike rate at this track and can take the 3yo handicap over 7 furlongs at 17.30 with Ana Emarati (Jamie Spenser), an easy CD winner last time. Spenser also rides Karasenir for jump s trainer Philip Hobbs in the maiden over 1 1/2 miles at 16.00. This 5yo is making his debut in flat races, but is a good hurdler who is rated 137 over the sticks and ran quite well recently at the Cheltenham Festival.

There is also a 3yo handicap over 7 furlongs at Lingfield (great planning) and Mark Johnston can be on the mark here too with Kingscroft (Greg Fairley), who has won 3 of his 4 starts and is still on the upgrade. Bunce (Richard Hannon/ Jimmy Fortune) finished last season wirh 3 wins, but as a result has top weight now, while Conducting (Brian Meehan/ Martin Dwyer) is also dangerous, having finished 4th in a listed race here only last Saturday.