3 poor meetings today

More bad weather is on the way - snow and frost- and there are likely to be more abandonments in the U.K. this week, but today´s 3 meetings seem to be safe. But to be honest none of them is of great interest, and they are not at all punter friendly with some small fields and very few races in which normal each-way betting is possible. At Plumpton, the only jumps meeting, the opening novice hurdle could be informative.

The penalised Valdez (Alan King/ Robert Thornton) sets the standard here, but it is not certain that he can give weight away all round. Ed Dunlop has few runners over the sticks, so his The Tiger (Leighton Aspell) must be respected, but Asker (Gary and Jamie Moore) was much better on the flat and, with his stable now in better form, is the selection. King and Choc have another likely favourite in Midnight Sail in the handicap chase at 16.10, who has been runner-up in 6 of his last 7 races - he won the other one- but this is a very tricky race, and once again the Moores have a lively candidate in Lord Singer, However here we prefer bottom-weight Delgany Gunner (Neil King/ Trevor Whelan), who is moving up in grade, but is in good form. She´s Humble (Linda Jewell/ Andrew Thornton) beat Goring Two (Anna NewtonSmith/ Mark Goldstein) in the 2 mile handicap chase at 14.4ß0 and can repeat that result today, as he is surprisingly much better off at the weights, and the jockey can com plete a double on CD specialist Hazy Bay in the at 16.40 in the stayers handicap hurdle, where German-bred Promised Wings (Chris Gordon/ Tom Cannon) could be the most dangerous opponent.

The all-weather cards at Lingfield and Wolverhampton are very poor indeed. At the former track, Equitania (Alan Bailey/ Philip Prince) has the best form in the 3yo handicap over 5 furlongs at 16.00, but he has a huge weight as a result and is probably better over 6, so we expect that Golden Flower (David O´Meara/ David Bergin) will keep up his trainer´s excellent start of the New Year. For lovers of longshots, we recommend Georgebernardshaw (Richard Guest/ Lisa Todd) in the apprentice handicap at 17.00; he was a group race performer for Aidan O´Brien as a 3yo but has lost his form completely, but this is his first race at LIngfield and he might possibly show a semblance of his old ability in this very weak company.

At Wolverhampton, leading owner Dr. Marwan Koukash, trainer David Slimcock and jockey Jamie Spencer might posibly land a double with English Summer at 15.50 and Gabrial the Boss half an hour later.