Market Rasen and Limerick

Two jumps meetings today, with the better card at the Irish fixture at Limerick, where the main event is a Grade Two novice chase over 3 miles at 17.45 CET. This has attracted a classy field, headed by Quito de la Roque (Colm Murphy/ Robbie Power), who has won 4 of his last 5 starts and went down by less than a length to Bostons Amgel, subsequently a winner at Cheltenham. However he faces tough opposition here, including Roi du Mee (Gordon Elliott/ Davy Condon), who has won his last 3, and Hampshire Express (Willie Mullins/ Ruby Walsh), who holds Roi du Mee on 2010 form. The bumper half an hour later sees two unbeaten horses in opposition, both of whom look likely to go right to the top- Waaheb (Dermot Weld/ Robbie McNamara) and Cash and Go (Andrew McNamara); it will be surprising if they do not dominate this field. O´Grady and McNamara are also represented by The Real Article, unbeaten in 4 starts, who runs in the novice hurdle at 16.45, but this is another tough race.

There are only 4 runners in the novice chase over an extended 3 miles at 17.10 at Market Rasen, but they all look quite useful. We hope to see German-bred Fin Vin de Leu (Charlie Mann/ Daryl Jacob) complete a hat-trick here. The novice hurdle at 16.05 should go to Higgys Ragazzo (Nicky Henderson/ Tony McCoy), who was a winner over this CD on his only start so far, but Troopingthecolour (Steve Gollings/ Rhys Flint) is an interesting alternative. He has not run for a long time, but was 1/2 all flat starts for John Gosden in 2009 and makes his debut over the sticks here.