4 meetings today

Nothing very exciting at today´s 4 meetings - two on the flat and two over jumps. The best race at Leicester is the 5 furlongs conditions race at 16.20 CET, in which temple Mreads (Ed Mcmahon/ Richard Mullen) is top-rated as a result of his smart form as a 2yo in 2010. However he has only run once since, and we prefer Amour Propre (Henry Candy/ Dane O´Neill), who had no chance in top sprints at Royal Ascot and Glorious Goodwood, but must have great prospects in this much lower grade. Improving handicapper Ballista (Tom Dascombe/ Richard Kingscote) could be the main danger.

At Redcar the handicap over the straight mile at 17.00 looks wide open with 14 runners. It is best to stick with course form here and top-weight Kiwi Bay (Michael Dods/ Tom Eaves), Jo´Burg (David O´Meara/ Danny Tudhope) and Aquarian Spirit (Richard Fahey/ Freddie Tylicki) are all CD winners. Aquarian Spirit could be dangerous now dropped in the weights, but Kiwi Bay holds them both; he was runner-up in this race last year and has won the straight mile final twice, in fact he has 5 course wins to his credit and can make it 6 today.

They go over jumps at orcester and Galway. At the former track the German-bred Sulpius (Bob Buckler/ CJ Davies) might be interesting in the opening handicap chase for conditional jockeys at 15.10. From one of Schlenderhan´s best families, he has shown next to nothing so far, but off a very low rating could run well at a big price in this modest event. There are also some interesting newcomers in the maiden hurdle at 17.10, but Porgy (Brian Ellison/ Danny Cook) has already shown talent over sticks and must be the one to beat; Ellison and Cook can follow up half an hour later in the 3yo hurdle with Fine Kingdom, who was virtually useless on the flat but ran well on his hurdling debut.
At the Irish track, Willie Mullins can land a double woth Zuzka in the novice hurdle at 18.05 and Laganbank in the novice chase an hour later, both partnered by Paul Townend. Laganbank fell last time and was earlier beaten by Bailey Green (Mouse Morris/ David Casey), now going for his fifth successive win, but meets him on better terms today.
Zuzka was beaten at odds-on last time, bit still looks a decent prospect.