4 meetings today

After the highlights of Royal Ascot, today´s 4 meetings (3 of them over jumps) in Britain and Ireland come as an anti-climax. Easily the best event is the listed race over 1 1/2 miles at 16.40 CET at Pontefract. Only 4 runners, but they all look distinctly useful and are headed by Jet Away (Sir Henry Cecil/ Tom Queally) , winner of both his races this season, including a listed one last time at Goodwood.

However he has never run beyond 10 furlongs and we do not believe he can give weight to Brown Panther (Tom Dascombe/ Kieren Fallon), beaten favourite for last year´s German Derby and later runner-up in the St.Leger. Brown Panther ran a shocker on his seasonal debut at Chester, but the stable is in much better form now. Glen´s Diamond (Richard Fahey/ Tony Hamilton), runner-up in the Yorkshire Cup, and Lost in the Moment (Saeed bin Suroor/ Silvestre de Sousa), 6th in last year´s Melbourne Cup, cannot be ignored but possibly need further, while everything seems in favour of Brown Panther, who is a confident selection. The 10 furlongs handicap here at 16.10 is also a decent race. Robemaker (John Gosden/ William Buick) represents a stable that had a tremendous Royal Ascot and obviously is a major contender under top weight. Edmaaj (David O´Meara/ Daniel Tudhope), a York winner last time, is the danger.

The bad weather continues in many parts of Britain and the going is very heavy at Hexham. With some small fields, this card is not at all punter-friendly. Our best bet here is Moulin de la Croix (Nigel and Sam Twiston-Davies) in the novice hurdle at 15.00; he was a very easy CD winner last week, making all, and can follow up at the main expense of Irish raider Face Value (Adrian McGuinness/ Dougie Costello).

At Hereford, we expect Shalloon (John Ferguson/ Jack Quinlan) to win the opening novice hurdle at 15.20. He was quite useful on the flat, when trained by Mark Johnston, and has run well on both his starts over sticks. The one-time German classic winner Aviso (David Evans/ Sam Thomas) runs in the handicap hurdle at 17.50. He was kept very busy during the winter and spring, running almost every week, but did manage to win 4 races. He has had a short break and could go well here, although he is no longer so well handicapped.

There are huge fields at the Irish N.H. meeting at Gowran Park. Smart bumper winner Thomas Edison (Tony Martin/ Mark Walsh) can get off the mark over hurdles at 15.45, while the much-improved He´s Our Man (Ross O´Sullivan/ Andrew McNamara) must have a good chance of completing a hat-trick in the handicap hurdle an hour later.

Pontefract - betting forecast:
1. Race: Fantacise - Skidby Mill - Tussie Mussie
2. Race: Kathlatino - Silly Gilly - Wiseman`s Diamond
3. Race: Tamarrud - Edmaaj - Robemaker
4. Race: Lost In The Moment - Glen`S Diamond - Brown Panther
5. Race: Veloce - Orsippus - Blackstone Vegas
6. Race: Crystal Monarch - Mashaari - Joyful Motive
7. Race: Premier Choice - Anton Chigurh - Dream Walker