4 meetings today

Even without the N. Irish meeting at Down Royal which has beern abandoned and will (we hope) now be staged next Tuesday, there are still 4 meetings today, although the all-weather cards at Southwell this afternoon and Kempton in the evening are very modest indeed. However the N.H. cards at Ludlow and Carlisle are both interesting, and the best race of the day is the handicap hurdle over an extended 3 miles at 17.05 CET at the latter track. The two top-weights, Quartz de Thaix (Venetia Williams/ Harry Challoner) and Knockara Beau (George Charlton/ Paddy Brennan), both ran at the recent Cheltenham Trials day meeting, but while the former fell when well behind in the Argento Chase, the latter ran an excellent race in the Cleeve Hurdle, lrading until between ther last two hurdles. This tough front-runner must be the selection on that form. Tony McCoy makes a rare visit here to partner the very smart novice Shutthefrontdoor - unbeaten in 3 bumpers and looking a very useful prospec t over hurdles, but he is moving up sharply in distance and we are always a bit suspicious about lightly-raced novices against battle-hardened runners like Knockara Beau. The same applies to Green Flag and Corrin Wood. Knockara Beau is unbeaten in two races here, including this race in 2011, and we think he can remain unbeaten at this track. McCoy´s visit may not be in vain, as he can win the novice chase at 15.20 on Charlie Longsdon´s Vulcanite and the handicap chase at 17.35 on Jonjo O´Neill´s top-weight Master Milan.

John Ferguson continues to operate with great success and his New Years Eve (Denis O´Regan) looks a good thing to win the maiden hurdle at 15.40 at Ludlow. He was a top bumper horse and is being aimed at the Cheltenham Festival; he should outclass today´s opposition, but will be at a very short price. Reginaldinho (Venetia Williams/ Aidan Coleman) is stepping up in distance after twice winning very easily over 2 1/2 miles when he contests the novice chase over 3 miles at 15.10 but we don´t expect that to be a problem and he looks another winning hot favourite. The handicaps here look very tricky, but we think that Miss Annalena (Lucy Wadham/ Dominic Elsworth) at 16.15 and Siberian Tiger (Evan Williams/ Paul Moloney) at 16.50 might both repay each-way support.