5 meetings today

Plenty of racing today, but mainly of very low quality. The best event is the Grade 2 Clonmel Oil Chase over 2 1/2 miles at 15.25 CET, but the Irish race has only attracted 4 runners. Tranquil Sea (Edward O´Grady/ Barry Geraghty) won this last year and is the class act in the field, but has to give away quite a lot of weight. Psycho (Tony Martin/ Ruby Walsh) is next best on ratings.

He is not the most consistent and fell last time, but runs his best races for Ruby, who is 5 from 6 on him. Tharawaat (Gordon Elliott/ Davy Russell) is an improving youngster, but he may not be ready for this, although he is certainly a major prospect. The Grade 3 mares chase, half an hour later, also features the 2010 winner who is attempting to follow up under top weight: Blazing Tempo ( Willie Mullins/ Walsh). However she was well beaten by Kauto Stone last Saturday and we prefer For Bill (Mervyn Winters/ Paul Carberry).

There is jumping in the U.K. at Taunton and Ludlow. At the former meeting we like Dormouse ( Marie King/ Mr.O.Murphy), who was 20-1 shot when winning last week at Warwick,but can now follow up at much shorter odds under a 7 lbs penalty. At Ludlow, the novice chase at 15.30 is the most interesting event and sees the chasing debut of the decent hurdlers Cucumber Run (Nicky Henderson/ Tony McCoy) and Cygnet (Donald McCain/ Brian Harding).

There are also two all-weather fixtures today. At Southwell this afternoon Lovelace (Richard Fahey/ Tony Hamilton) can win the Claiming Stakes at 14.20. This i a long way down from his Group 2 win at Baden-Baden 3 years ago, but his recent form leaves much to be desired- as does that of his main rival Autumn Blades (Ruth Carr/ Tom Eaves). At Kempton this evening the conditions race over 11 furlong at 19.50 also features two horses that have not visited the winners enclosure for a long time - Irish Flame (Mike de Kock/ Luke Morris) and Treasury Devil (John Gosden/ William Buick); despite their poor recent form, they should outclass this lot.