3 N.H. meetings today

Jumps racing today at Huntingdon and Sedgfield, and in Ireland at Leopardstown, but obviously no stars on view with Cheltenham just round the corner. The best card is at Leopardstown with a valuable handicap chase over 2 miles 5 furlongs at 17.00 CET. Top-weight Roberto Goldback (Dessie Hughes/ Barry Geraghty) is the class act here and ran a great race last time when chasing home Quel Esprit (Willie Mullins´ Gold Cup hope) over 3 miles. This trip is possibly even more suitable and we think that he can give the weight away. Organisedconfusion (Arthur Moore/ Nina Carberry), who won last year´s Irish Grand National and is being aimed now at the Aintree version, and further but is still the main threat. The hurdle race at 15.30 is another good race, with most of the runners just below top class. Osana (Edward O´Grady/ Mark Walsh) was runner-up in the 2008 Champion Hurdle, but has been mainly chasing since. We prefer Won in the Dark (Sabrina Harty/ Andrew Lynch) today, who won thi s event in 2010 and recently ran a good second to the smart Cousin Vinny. This race was won last year by Stonemaster (Dessie Hughes/ Mark Enright) who now reappears under top weight in the handicap hurdle at 16.00. He is another one to have been chasing since, without a great deal of success, but back to the smaller obstacles must have a good chance in this company.

At Sedgefield there are several course specialists running and they should probably all be followed. Oniz Tiptoes (John Wainwright/ Peter Buchanan), bottom weight in the handicap hurdle at 16.20, 13yo Toulouse Express (Bob and Kenny Johnson) in the handicap chase at 16.50 and Authentic Act (Mike Todhunter/ James Reveley) , all of whose career wins have come here, all come into this category.

Punters should be cautious at Huntingdon; although the ground is officially good to firm, heavy rain is expected. Our main fancies here are Dot or Feather (Ian Williams/ Harry Skelton), who won easily on his first attempt over fences and can follow up in a better grade at 16.40, consistent German-bred Malanos (Tony Carroll/ Lee Edwards) at 17.10 and Persian Snow (Philip Hobbs/ Richard Johnson), who should certainly win the maiden hurdle half an hour later if he can reproduce his latest Sandown form here.