6 poor meetings today

Newmarket´s July Meeting starts tomorrow, but today´s 6 cards are all very low level. Yarmouth´s class 3 handicap over 7 furlongs at 17.10 CET is the "best" race of the day. There are only 6 runners, but it looks very trappy. Ismail Mohammed trains two of them, including top-weight Admiralty (Harry Bentley), who has won his last 3 races - but all on the all-weather and always with long intervals in between. He could win again, but we are sceptical. Poisson d´Or (Rae Guest/ Ted Durcan) won over this CD last time, but had little to beat, while the only 3yo in the field, Skytrain (Mark Johnston/ Silvestre de Sousa) has won 4 races already this year but is nevertheless rather inconsistent. Our selection is Azrael (Alan McCabe/ Adam Kirby), who ran really well last Saturday at Leicester and is a dual CD winner.

Mark Johnston probably has better chances of scoring at Catterick, where he has 2 runners in the 2 mile handicap at 16.50. Both of them, top-weight Red Orator (Joe Fanning) and Bounty Seeker (Liam Jones), are front-runners so we must hope they don´t cut each others´ throats. Alexandar (Jim Goldie/ Graham Lee) and Dr Irv (Philip Kirby/ Declan Cannon) are the two most likely to take advantage, but we prefer Red Orator, who has been running in better races and can win despite his huge weight. The all-weather cards at Lingfield and Kempton are very undistinguished, although in fact the first 4 races at Lingfield are run on turf, including the fillies handicap at 16.00. The interesting one here is Candoluminescence from the in-form team of Roger Charlton and James Doyle and owned by the Queen. She has not shown much so far, but is up in distance here and could well outclass these modest opponents.

At Kempton our old friend Dvinsky (Roger Ingram/ Philip Prince) reappears in ther apprentice handicap at 19.20. The 12yo is running for the 230th (and possibly last) time and has 19 wins and 68 places in his record. he runs his best races over this CD and we hope he finishes in the money again. In Ireland, Aidan and Joseph O´Brien could well clean up at the evening meeting at Naas. where they have fancied runners in 6 of the 7 races. Rain God has top weight in the 3yo handicap at 20.30; she won last time with O´Brien´s young daughter Anastasia aboard and can now follow up under her brother. The only jumping is at Worcester, where German-bred Engai (David Bridgwater/ Tom Scudamore) can finally get his head in front in the maiden hurdle at 22.10 after repeatedly finishing second. On the Bridge (Jeremy Scott/ Nick Scholfield) can boast a rather better record; since last August he was won 7 of his 9 starts and finished twice runner-up. He has gone up 44 lbs in the ratings but can still score again in the handicap chase at 19.40.

Naas - betting forecast:
1. Race: Taanif - Oklahoma City - Bonjour Bob
2. Race: Minorette - Touch Of Snow - Invisible Flash
3. Race: Penny Serenade - South Ring - Boughtforasong
4. Race: General Brook - Rain God - Connacht Council
5. Race: Violet Hour - Pastiches - Sherzam
6. Race: Waver - Truly Genius - Rockabilly Riot
7. Race: Levanto - The Vatican - Morning With Ivan