Jumpers Bumpers at Lingfield

With all jumps meetings off again today - and several more abandonments likely this week - there are just two all-weather fixtures today- a very weak card at Wolverhampton and a jumpers bumpers card at Lingfield - the third such card in the last fortnight.

The most interesting race could be the event at 15.20 CET - like all the other races on the card over 2 miles - in which recent Kempton winner Keep Kicking (Jonjo O´Neill/ Richie McLernon) takes on several horses that once had much better flat form, notably Ransom Note (Nigel and Sam Twiston-Davies), a Group Two winner for Charlie Hills and who also ran respectably in Group One races. He ran badly in his only effort over hurdles, so is not easy to assess and we know from experience that form in other disciplines does not always work out in these events. The Fonz (Pauline Robeson/ Jimmy McCarthy) and Shernando (Nicky Henderson/ Tony McCoy) were decent handicappers for Sir Michael Stoute and Mark Johnston respectively, so must also be respected here.

Samarkand (Neil King/ Alex Merriam) was also quite useful on the flat - though not up to the standard of those mentioned above - and the son of Sadlers Wells should be able to pick up the following race half an hour later against weak opposition. The next race at 16.20 should lie between Dr. Livingstone (Charlie Egerton/ Sam Twiston-Davies), a winner at Kempton last Friday, and Shuil Royale (David Arbuthnot/ Darly Jacob), who was just beaten over fences last time, is a winning hurdler and is also unbeaten so far in bumpers. Others with a winning chance are Representingceltic (Pat Phelan/ Colin Bolger) at 14.50, Natural Spring (Suzy Smith/ Paddy Brennan) at 16.50 and Guest of Honour (Paul Webber/ McCoy) at 17.20; the last-named is a rare winter runner in the colours of Michael Tabor. However as we said earlier, form does not always work out in these races and we would not be overconfident about any of them.

The card at Wolverhampton is very poor, but Joe Fanning, who rode 3 winners here yesterday, can keep up the good work with Climaxfortackle at 15.30 and Prince of Passion at 18.30, both trained by Derek Shaw.

Lingfield - betting forecast:
1. Race: On The Move - Rediscover - Lady Lectra
2. Race: Representingceltic - Finger Onthe Pulse - Border Station
3. Race: Ransom Note - Keep Kicking - Shernando
4. Race: Samarkand - Houndscourt - Sun Quest
5. Race: Dr Livingstone - Shuil Royale - Mickelson
6. Race: Natural Spring - Grassfinch - Annimation
7. Race: Guest Of Honour - Eastbury - Oscars Den