Pontefract and Hexham

Only two meetings this afternoon, flat racing at Pontefract and over jumps at Hexham. Easily the most interesting event is the 6 furlongs handicap at 16.15 CET at Pontefract, which looks wide open with 17 runners. Normally we would fancy Docofthebay (Scott Dixon/ Robert Winston), who ran really well at Doncaster, but the recent rain is not in his favour and we expect Nazri (David Nicholls/ Kieren Fallon) to finish in front of him this time.

Shropshire (Charlie Hills/ Matthew Lawson) looks dangerous on his Kempton form, but the outside draw is a problem, while Seal Rock (Henry Candy/ Dane O´Neil), expected to go places this season. may need the race. The logical winner for us is Mirza (Rae Guest/ William Carson), who won in good style at Newbury on Friday over 5 furlongs, but is equally effective ovr this trip and can follow up under a 6 lbs penalty. The other race of interest here is the marathon handicap at 16.45, at almost 2 3/4 miles one of the longest flat races in the U.K. Most of the runners have been active over jumps, and our choice is Bocamix (Tony Crooki/ Kieren Fallon), a winner twice over hurdles at Southwell this year, but Irish raider Mutiska (JCHayden/ Silvestre de Sousa) also looks threatening.

The going at Hexham will be very testing and punters should tread warily. Donald McCain usually does well here and his Constant Contact (Jason Maguire) looks the best bet on the card in the novice hurdle at 16.30. He won´t pay much though, and at the likely odds Prosecco (Lucinda Russell/ Peter Buchanan) may be a better bet in the 2 mile handicap chase half an hour later.

With the days getting longer, evening racing has now arrived and there are 3 meetings this evening, at Windsor on the flat, and at Ffos Las in Wales and Cork in Ireland over jumps.