6 meetings today

A typical Tuesday with 6 meetings, 3 this afternoon and 3 this evening, but all at a very low level. This afternoon has two N.H. fixtures, and at Sedgefield we like CD specialist Schinken Otto (Malcolm Jefferson/ Harry Haynes) in the 2 mile handicap chase at 16.30 CET; the old boy is on a very nice mark after several poor efforts elsewhere but he runs his best races here. The meeting could start with trainer Donald McCain and jockey Jason Maguire winning the first 3 races on Aazif at 15.00, Any Given Day at 15.30 and Valleyofmilan at 16.00, but they will all be hot favourites; Any GIven Day is especially interesting as this useful hurdler is running for the first time over fences.

Several top trainers have runners at Wincanton, but these races look very tricky and there are some small fields as well. Top-weight Plein Pouvoir (Venetia Williams/ Aidan Coleman), who has been running in better company, might win the staying handicap chase at 16.20.

There are some very speedy types running in the two divisions of the 5 furlongs handicap at Beverley. We like the oldtimers in these sprint races, and think that the first division at 16.10 could be dominated by the 9yo Divertimento (Roy Bowring/ Adam Maclean), an easy winner at Nottingham last week with this young apprentice up, and 8yo Ingelby Star (Ian McInnes/ Lee McNiff), who has not won for a while but usually goes well here. The second division at 18.40 could go to 13yo Indian Trail (David Nicholls/ Shirley Teasdale), who won over this CD in September but has only run once since; he used to be much better than this grade, but is of course not guaranteed to run up to that form now. On current form Chosen One (Ruth Carr/ Peter McDonald), a mere youngster at 8, who has won his last 3 races and is still on a good ,mark, can be preferred.

The most interesting race this evening is the opening beginners chase at 18.15 at Killarney, in which the smart hurdlers Rebel Fitz (Michael Winters/ Barry Geraghty) and Steps to Freedom (Jessica Harrington/ Robbie Power) make their chasing debuts. The latter is also pretty good on the flat and was only beaten 5 1/2 lengths in the Group Three Sagaro Stakes recently. Of course they have to jump round, and for those who want to play it safe, Darwins Fox (Henry de Bromhead/ Andrew Lynch), already 3 times runner-up over fences, is the obvious alternative.,