5 poor meetings today

Nothing to get very excited about at today´s 5 meetings. As we saw at Baden-Baden last week, Andrew Balding has his string in fine form, and we expect his Tarara (Jimmy Fortune) to win the 3yo maiden at 15.50 CET at Bath. The sprint handicap here half an hour later looks very tricky, and trainer Milton Bradley, who always does well in these events, has entered three runners; Sole Dancer (Richard Kingscote) is in improving form and could be the best of them. The 5 furlongs handicap for 3yo´s at 16.50 has only a small field and should lie between the two top-weights, the lightly-raced Angelito (Ed Mcmahon/ Sean Levey), an easy maiden winner over this CD last time, and I See You (Peter Makin/ Jimmy Fortune) who won a similar race at Goodwood and followed up with a close second here last Saturday.

At Lingfield they race on turf this afternoon, and Godolphin could well land a double with Gold Hunter in the 2yo maiden at 16.00 and Mawhub in the 3yo handicap at 17.30, both trained by Saeed bin Suroor and partnered by Silvestre de Sousa. Gold Hunter was third on both his starts so far, back in May, and meets some decent opposition now, but the stable is now in much better form. Mawhub was a narrow winner of a Newmarket maiden over a mile 12 days ago; he also meets some decent opponents, but has been given a very reasonable mark by the handicapper.

Evening racing on turf is finished for this year, but Kempton continues to stage its Wednesday evening meetings under floodlight. Many of the jockeys riding at Lingfield make their way to Kempton afterwards and de Sousa can score another win for Godolphin with the well-bred debutant Spokeswoman in the maiden race for 2yo fillies at 21.00. The best betting race here is the mile handicap for 3yo´s at 20.30, in which almost any of the 12 runners could win; we will take a chance on outsider Opera Buff (Silvester Kirk/ Liam Keniry), who is very inconsistent but has dropped to a very low rating and is a half-brother to Opera Gal (runner-up in a Baden-Baden Group Three last Saturday).

There is N.H. racing at Hereford, due to close down soon, where we make Noble Media (Lucy Jones/ W Kennedy) our best bet of the day; he showed much improved form to win at Stratford last time and can keep up the good work by taking the 2 1/2 mile handicap hurdle at 17.40 under a penalty.

Racing in Ireland today is at Gowran Park with some big fields. Johnny Murtagh makes his return from injury with just one ride - Tommy Carmody´s Sherzam in the 2yo handicap at 17.35. He could well start at a very short price and a better bet could be ex-German Landero (B. Heffernan/ SH James) in the 1 1/2 mile handicap at 19.40. He has not run on the flat since winning at Halle (!) in 2010 but has won over hurdles this year. The ground is now drying out all over Ireland after the very wet summer and this should suit the gelding, who is from the same family as Lando.

Betting forecast:
1. Race: Hoarding - Pira Palace - Bornean
2. Race: Alnawiyah - Thiqa - Ghanaian
3. Race: Gold Hunter - Digress - African Oil
4. Race: Sushi - Aarti - Far East
5. Race: Idyllic Star - Urban Space - Khazium
6. Race: Debating Society - Estebsaal - Mawhub
7. Race: Revered Citizen - Noble Silk - Caption