4 meetings this evening

The best race this evening, and probably of the whole day, is the sprint handicap at Hamilton at 20.45 with 15 runners. All the usual suspects are well represented here, with Richard Fahey, who has often won this race, saddling 3 runners, the best of which is possibly Quest for Success, the mount of stable jockey Paul Hanagan. We prefer top-weight Tajneed (Andrew Mullen) of David Nicholls´ two runners; he was 8th of 28 in a very hot handicap at the Curragh last time, where Colonel Mak (David Barron/ Lee Newman) finished in 10th. Roker Park (David O´Meara/ Derek Nolan) was an easy winner at Chester, but our choice is Everymanforhimself (Kevin Ryan/ Phillip Makin), runner-up at Newcastle last time.

At Newmarket´s evening meeting Elusivity (Brian Meehan/ Frankie Dettori) is bound to be popular for the 3yo handicap at 19.55 after finishing runner-up 5 times running and now partnered for the first time by Frankie. He has never been beaten by much but has gone up a lot in the handicap as a result, so we give slight preference to the consistent Romantic Wish (Robert Mills/ Jim Crowley). Sprint king Henry Candy can take the 5 furlongs race here half an hour later with Dinkum Diamond (William Buick), runner-up in a listed race at Sandown last time.

At Pontefract we think that Secret Asset (Jane Chapple-Hyam/ Silvestre de Sousa) could run a big race under top weight in the 5 furlongs handicap at 20.35, with Albany Close (Rae Guest/ Ted Durcan) and Duchess Dora (John Quinn/ Dale Swift) the two main dangers.

There are the usual huge fields in the Irish N.H. meeting at Kilbeggan, where the top event is a valuable handicap chase over 2 3/4 miles at 21.25. Harolds Cross (Christy Roche/ Alan Crowe) has won his last 3 races and is the obvious choice, but at these weights we just prefer Future All Star (Colm Murphy/ Jon Cullen). Novarov (JF O´Shea/ SG McDermott), last seen winning at Dortmund in December, makes his hurdling debut here at 18.45.