huge crowd expected at Newbury today

Except for Royal Ascot and Cheltenham, large crowds on Friday at a British racetrack are very unusual, but that will be the case at Newbury today, where 20,000 racegoers are expected to watch a fantastic card with several Cheltenham favourites in action. Entry to the racecourse is free, making it even more attractive. Most of the races are from last Saturday´s abandoned card, and it looks very much as if the day will be dominated yet again by the two powerful stables of Paul Nicholls and Nicky Henderson. They go head to head in almost every race, including the Denman Chase over 3 miles at 13.40 CET, in which they each have two of the six runners. Henderson runs Gold Cup winner Long Run (Sam Waley-Cohen) and Burton Port (Barry Geraghty), while Nicholls relies on Tidal Bay (Ruby Walsh) and What Friend (Daryl Jacob), runner-up in this last year and 4th in the Gold Cup and now 10 lbs better off with Long Run. The last-named is course the best horse in the field and has only bee n beaten by Kauto Star (twice) this season; however we feel that the concession of 10 lbs could well prove too much for him. In a race better watched than bet on our selection is the enigmatic Tidal Bay, who has the right man on board to get the best out of him.

The Grade One novice chase at 15.55 also has Nicholls and Henderson runners. but our fancy here is Walkon (Alan King/ Robert Thornton), a bit below par here last time. Sprinter Sacre (Henderson/ Geraghty) should be the star of the opening novice chase at 13.10; He has won both his starts over fences in good style and is favourite for the Arkle. The big betting race of the day is the handicap hurdle at 14.15, known in earlier days as the Schweppes and then the Totesport. With 20 runners this is a really hot event and both Nicholls and Henderson have multiple entries although the unbeaten pair Zarkandar (Walsh) and Darlan (Tony McCoy) look theit first strings. Neither offr much value and we make Olofi (Tom George/ Paddy Brennan) our each-way selection.