Listed races today

Surprisingly for a Wednesday, there are listed races at 3 meetings today. At Sandown, where the going is very soft to heavy, we have the mile race at 16.55 CET, which should mainly concern the 7yo Penitent (David O´Meara/ Danny Tudhope) and the 3yo Wentworth (Richard Hannon/ Richard Hughes), who won the big mile handicap at Glorious Goodwood last time. That was a good effort but we still prefer the older horse who has been running respectably in much better company - his last 12 runs have all been in group races. Penitent loves this ground and is the clear choice, although Bana Wu (Andrew Balding/ David Probert) as a daughter of Shirocco should also handle it and looks well treated at the weights. Earlier Penitent´s half-brother Solemn (Milton Bradley/ Adam Kirby) could also run well in the 5 furlongs handicap whicjh opens the card at 15.20.

Yarmouth´s big meeting continues with the listed race for fillies over 10 furlongs at 16.10 as the main feature. Semayyel (Clive Brittain/ Ted Durcan) was an easy winner of this last year at odds of 125-1, but this field looks much stronger and she is held by Hippy Hippy Shake (Luca Cumani/ Kieren Fallon) on Salisbury form. Rock Choir (William Haggas/ Andrea Atzeni) also ran well in that race and is our tentative selectipn, with Shuruq (Saeed bin Suroor/ Ahmed Ajtebi) another possibility in a very tricky race, while Ribbons (James Fanshawe/ Freddie Tylicki) is up in class after winning all her 4 starts so far. A high draw is a big advantage here in sprint races, so we hope that oldtimer Judge ´n´Jury (Ron Harris/ Frankie Dettori), drawn 12 of 12, can take the 5 furlongs handicap here at 17.55 at the main expense of Jamaican Bolt (Geoff Oldroyd/ William Twiston-Davies).

The Irish meeting at Listowel continues today with a strong card, headed by the listed race over 1 1/2 miles at 16.25, which should go to the lightly-raced 3yo Eye of the Storm (Aidan and Joseph O´Brien). However the top event here, and the richest race of the day, is the Kerry National, a handicap chase over 3 miles at 18.10. Many of these ran in the Galway Plate, which was won by Carlingford Lough (John Kiely/ AP McCoy); he was a heavily-backed favourite that day but is by no means certain to confirm the form at the revised weights. He is one of 7 runners owned by JP McManus, and it is possible that German-bred Shot From The Hip (Edward O´Grady/ Mark Walsh) could be the best of them, but we shall take a chance on Romanesco (Gordon Elliott/ Conor O´Farrell), whose trainer had 2 winners here yesterday.