2 N.H. and 2 all-weather flat meetings

More poor level racing at today´s 4 meetings, but still some interesting betting opportunities. The opening race at Leicester, a novice hurdle at 14.00 CET, has several runners from big stables - Henderson & co- but we are quite keen on the German-bred Salomo (Rebecca Curtis/ Kielan Woods). The Monsun gelding showed definite improvement last time and we think he could run a big race at decent odds.

The best race at Leicester is the handicap hurdle at 16.00. Fiendish Flame (/Jennie Candlish/Alan O´Keeffe) will probably start favourite here after a very easy CD success last week, for which he carries a 7 lb penalty, However this field looks much stronger. Dhaafer (Alan King/ Robert Thornton) from a stable back in form, is an obvious danger, as are JP McManus´ two runners; Tony McCoy has chosen to ride the very lightly-raced Christopher Wren (Nick Gifford) over the more exposed City Theater (RP McLernon), but we are not sure he has made the right decision. We shall take a chance on Afsoun (Neil King/ Alex Merriam), who is clearly no longer the force he was in 2007, when he was third in the Champion Hurdle, but if anywhere near his best form would laugh at this opposition.

The ground will be very testing at Hexham, so stakes should be kept to a minimum and punters should stick to runners who go well on the ground. One such is Le Roi Rouge (Ferdy Murphy/ Graham Lee), who has top weight in the handicap chase at 14.20.

Of the two all-weather meetings, this evening´s Kempton fixture is the more interesting from the point of view of German pedigrees. Night Flash (James Given/ Jim Crowley) attempts a quick course hat-trick in the 2yo handicap at 18.50. He has shot up the weights, but we think he is up to the task - he is after all a half-brother to Night Magic . There are two German-breds in the 1 1/2 mile handicap half an hour later, both last time-out-winners. Sovento (Steve and Martin Harley) scored only on Monday at Lingfield, but we prefer Valdan (David Evans/ Matthew Cosham), who won over CD 13 days ago and is none other than a half-brother to Danedream!