5 meetings today

There is plenty of racing today, with N.H. cards this afternoon at Kempton, Bangor and Newcastle (which has survived an inspection) and all-weather racing this evening at Wolverhampton and Dundalk (Ireland). The standard is mainly very low, and there are only 3 runners in the best race, the graduation chase over 2 1/2 miles at 16.25 CET at Kempton. Domtaline (Paul Nicholls/ Ruby Walsh) and Alasi (Paul Webber/ Dominic Elsworth) are both pretty useful, but surely they cannot defeat Champion Court (Martin Keighley/ Alain Cawley), who is being aimed at the Ryanair Chase and last time measured strides for a long way with Long Run here in the King George before fading to fourth. The 3 mile handicap chase here at 17.00 is also a good race, in which Pete The Feat (Charlie Longsdon/ Noel Fehily), the most improved horse of the season, has top weight. He has gone up a massive 43 lbs in the weights after winning 5 races, and much as we admire him, we cannot see him conceding the weight to Nicky Henderson´s two runners Prince of Pirates (Tony McCoy) nor State Benefit (Barry Geraghty), who was pulled up behind him at Newbury just before New Year but is now much better off. However our main fancy here is Moleskin (Vic Dartnall/ Jack Doyle), whose stable is coming back to form and has a good record at this track.

David Pipe has runners at both Kempton and Bangor, but he sends his main jockey Tom Scudamore on the long trip north to Newcastle. Broadway Buffalo, unbeaten in two bumpers, should win for the pair on his hurdles debut at 15.25, while Take Over Sivola also has a decent chance in the 3 mile handicap chase at 16.00, although top weight Armedanddangerous (Tom Gretton/ Felix de Giles) could be a major problem here.

Donald McCain and his stable jockey Jason Maguire are usually the team to follow at Bangor, and they can take the novice hurdle at 14.30 with Blackwater King and the novice hurdle at 15.35 with Dungeel, although there are dangers in both fields. The big betting race here is the staying handicap chase at 16.10, in which the top two My Boy Paddy (Nigel and Sam Twiston-Davies) and Alderluck (Pipe/ Mike Ennis) should dominate affairs; German-bred Ten Fires (Brendan Powell/ Andrew Tinkler) has not won for 3 years, but stays well and is a reliable jumper and can finish in the money. The best German-bred of the day however is Engai (David Bridgewater/ Tom Phelan) in the following race; he has not yet won in the U.K.but ran a good race last time at Plumpton in a much more competitive race and that form should be good enough here.

Kempton - betting forecast:
1. Race: Franklino - Thundering Home - Adiynara
2. Race: Uxizandre - Ericht - Comeonginger
3. Race: Urgence d`Estruval - Kie - Nozic
4. Race: Farbreaga - Zelkova Island - No Likey
5. Race: Champion Court - Domtaline - Alasi
6. Race: Pete The Feat - Renard D`Irlande - Storming Gale
7. Race: Master Malt - Tradewinds - Carole`s Destrier