Listed race at Pontefract

The only event of real interest today is the listed race at 17.00 CET at Pontefract for older fillies and mares over one mile. This has attracted quite a decent field with Dark Promise (Roger Varian/ Neil Callan) and Folly Bridge (Roger Charlton) the likeliest candidates. Off Chance (Tim Easterby/ Duran Fentiman) won this last year and Law of the Range (Marco Botti/ Silvestre de Sousa) has won her last two races and is much improved.

However we shall give another chance to Kinky Afro (Stan Moore/ Luke Morris), who has been running in much better races and could well run well at a big price. The best betting race here is the 6 furlongs handicap half an hour later. Dickie le Davoir Richard Guest/ Robert Lucey-Butler), Cornus (Alan McCabe/ Martin Harley) and Mr. Wolf (John Quinn/ Amy Ryan) are all CD specialist but are getting a bit long in the tooth. Thunderball (David Nicholls/ Leonna Mayor) is a strong front-runner who will test them all, but we have a slight preference for Klynch (Ruth Carr/ James Sullivan), who has been in great form this year and has already won 4 times in 2011.

The all-weather meetings - this afternoon at Wolverhampton and this evening at Southwell - are very poor. At the former track, William Buick could land a short-priced double on Ed Dunlop´s Lemon Drop Red at 16.15, a very easy Brighton winner last time, and John Gosden´s Trumpington Street in the maiden race an hour later, while Gosden can double up with Banksy (Royston Ffrench) in the 2yo maiden which opens the Southwell card at 19.40.
The two N.H. meetings this evening are also very low on quality. Zhukov (K. Tork/ Mr. Matthew Hampton) has been in excellent form recently and won last time out with this jockey on board. He can take the novices handicap chase at 20.50 at Uttoxeter, where we also hope to see the consistent Laureate des Loges (Henry Daly/ Richard Johnson) win the mares handicap hurdle at 21.50. There is an all-hurdles card at the Irish meeting at Roscommon, where we fancy Alfa Beat (Shark Hanlon/ Barry Geraghty) to win the handicap hurdle at 20.00. He was only 6th (of 24) when favourite last time out at Punchestown, but the opposition looks weaker this time.