5 poor meetings today

Once again, plenty of racing today but nothing of great interest. At Lingfield there are 8 races on polytrack, but the "best" are the two divisions of the mile handicap for 3yo´s. Absolutely Right (George Margarson/ Tom Queally) runs in the first divison at 16.30; he has not been out since winning here over 7 furlongs in December when trained by Richard Hannon., but would not need to be anything special to win here.

The second division half an hour later looks equally weak, although Rainbow Beauty(Ger Butler/ William Buick) would have a chance if turned out again after running third at Leicester yesterday; if not we would go for bottom-weight Landau (Silvester Kirk/ Sean Levey).

Easily the best race of the day is the 5 furlongs conditions race at 16.40 at Beverley, which has attracted a strong field for the prize-money, with several runners having decent form in group and listed races to their credit. Despite his bad draw, we go for Robin Bastiman´s oldtimer Borderlescott, who goes well here; Paul Mulrennan is down to ride but was injured in an nasty fall yesterday. Excelette (Bryan Smart/ Royston Ffrench) is well treated by the race conditions and looks the best alternative.

At Carlisle, the handicap over just short of 1 1/2 miles at 19.15 is the main event; this looks very tricky and our two main fancies are the only 3yo in the field Hunting Ground (Mark Johnston/ Joe Fanning), who found 1 3/4 miles too far last time, and bottom-weight Now My Sun (Karl Burke/ Tom Eaves).

There is jumps racing in the U.K. at Newton Abbot and in Ireland at Ballinrobe. We expect 3 German-breds to finish in the money in Devon - Quadrato (Tim Vaughan/ Richard Johnson) at 16.20, Pindar (Neil Mulholland/ Conor Shoemark) at 17.20 and Sadler´ s Star (Michael Blake/ Nick Scholfield) half an hour later.

There are large fields in Ireland and it looks a difficult card for punters. Nearer the Pin (Tony Martin/ Barry Geraghty) at 18.15 and Tom Horn (Noel Meade/ Mark Walsh) at 18.50 are our main hopes here.