Musselburgh, Wolverhampton and Dundalk

The flat season continues this afternoon at Musselburgh with another poor card, although there are at least spome large fields. The 5 furlongs handicap at 16.20 CET has 14 runners and looks wide open, but we would not be surprised to see the veteran Highland Warrior (Peter Midgely/ Paul Pickard) score his 6th CD win here at the age of 12. Oldjoesaid (Kevin Ryan/ Phillip Makin), dropping in grade, and Northern Dare (Richard Fahey/ Paul Hanagan) look the main dangers. Delany´s Dream (David and Adrian Nicholls) can take the 7 furlongs handicap for 3yo´s half an hour later; he won at Catterick in November over 6, but the extra furlong should not be a problem. Our other fancy he is Guest Book (Mark Johnston/ Joe Fanning), who has top weight in the mile handicap at 17.20. He is relatively lightly raced and looks capable of improvement.

Betting forecast:
1. Race: Devlin - Idler - Hamza
2. Race: Grand Diamond - Red Kestrel - Royal Straight
3. Race: Nadeen - Highland Warrior - Northern Dare
4. Race: Las Verglas Star - Chilledtothebone - Delaney`S Dream
5. Race: Guest Book - Prince Apollo - Snow Bay
6. Race: Calypso Magic - Dressing Room - See The Smile
7. Race: Verluga - My One Weakness - Miss Blink


There is also all-weather racing this evening at Wolverhampton, where we expect that Acclamazing (Marco Botti/ Adam Kirby) can complete a CD hat-trick in the 3yo handicap at 19.10.

Betting forecast:
1. Race: Rhal - Reachtothestars - William Wainwright
2. Race: Acclamazing - Sadafiya - Tro Nesa
3. Race: Leyte Gulf - War Of The Roses - Little Richard
4. Race: Majuro - The Which Doctor - Plush
5. Race: Goal - Beating Harmony - Princess Gail
6. Race: Eastern Gift - Needwood Ridge - African Cheetah
7. Race: Step And Fetch - Crucis Abbey - Prince Of Passion


The standard is higher at the Irish all-weather meeting this evening at Dundalk. Tommy Stack has as usual started the season in good form and can land the first two races, both over 5 furlongs, with Blue Dahlia at 19.30 and Celerina half an hour later, both with apprentice SA Gray in the saddle. Stack also saddles Sikara (Wayne Lordan), runner-up on her only start, in the fillies maiden at 21.30, but there are some interesting opponents here, notably Aidan O´Brien´s well-bred newcomer She´s a Queen with son Joseph aboard. The best race is the 7 furlongs handicap at 21.00, which we expect to be dominated by the higher weights, all of whom have listed or even group race form to their credit, such as Finicius (Eoin Griffin/ Johnny Murtagh) or Six of Hearts (C. Ross/ DJ Moran), while Toraidhe (Jim Bolger/ Kevin Manning) was runner-up in the Irish Lincolnshire a few days ago. We just prefer course specialist Dahindar (Eddie Lynam/ PB Beggy), all of whose 3 career wins have come over this CD.

Betting forecast:
1. Race: Blue Dahlia - Knock Stars - Quinmaster
2. Race: Celerina - Catalpa Sail - Primalova
3. Race: Via Mia - Desert Ben - East Of Tara
4. Race: Toraidhe - Dahindar - The Tooth Fairy
5. Race: Adiynara - Sikara - She`S A Queen
6. Race: Green To Gold - Try Freedom - Sarteano
7. Race: King Of Aran - Notalossonya - Alamanda