listed races at Newbury and Chester

today´s cards are better than usual for a Sunday, with a decent N.H. card at Market Rasen and listed races at both Chester and Newbury. At the latter track, we expect the Queen´s Set to Music (Michael Bell/ Hayley Turner) to gtake the 1 1/2 mile race for fillies and mares at 17.20 CET. She has top weight here but has plenty of form to suggest she should be good enough - winning the Warwickshire Oaks and last time third to the top class Great Heavens in the Lancashire Oaks. Ambivalent (Roger Varian/ Andrea Atzeni), third in a simlar event at Newmarket, the nobly-bred Albamara (Sir Mark Prescott/ Luke Morris) and the improving Khione (Luca Cumani/ Kieren Fallon) should scrap it out for the places.
At Chester, the listed race is a 6 furlongs sprint at 16.05. Mark Johnston is having a tremendous run and we expect him to take this with the 3yo Van Ellis (Joe Fanning) despite the outside draw. The form he showed when winning York´s valuable Sky Dash last Saturday is well up to listed class, although he has been running so far in handicaps. Hitchens (David Barron/ Silvestre de Sousa), penalised for winning a valuable race in Meydan, and Inxile (David and Adrian Nicholls) are both tough and experienced 7yo´s with plenty of listed and group form to their credit, but Van Ellis looks to be a young sprinter going places.
In Ireland the week long Galway meeting finishes today, like many fixtures this year spoilt by the weather. For the 26th time Dermot Weld is the leading trainer here, although he will come nowhere near to last year´s record of 17 wins. Today he has just 3 runners, Toreros (Mark Enright) in the handicap hurdle at 15.15, Sweet Mystery (LF Roche) in a handicap at 17.25 and Train of Thought (LF Roche) in another flat handicap in the last race of the meeting at 18.00. It is quite conceivable that all three could win.
Stable jockey Pat Smullen, and probably the trainer himself, will however be at Cork (weather permitting), where the stable´s run of success can continue with Tameer in the listed race at 16.30 and Sapphire in the fillies Group Three at 17.05. However racing is not certain to go ahead here and an inspection will be held later.

Betting forecast at Chester:
1. Race: Penny Garcia - The Sixties - Dream Maker
2. Race: Black Monk - Romantic Settings - Arlecchino
3. Race: Hitchens - Inxile - Masamah
4. Race: White Frost - My Kingdom - Galician
5. Race: Ashaadd - Tickle Time - Flyman
6. Race: Grandiloquent - Gold Rules - Spanish Plume
7. Race: Elkhart - Edraaq - Mcvicar