5 Meetings today

Lots of racing today and plenty of runners, but the flat meetings - on the all-weather at Lingfield this afternoon and Kempton, and on turf at Nottingham, all have a very end-of-season look about them, wih some large fields of mainly modest performers. The going is soft at the last-named fixture, which will suit Zafisio (Jo Hughes/ Graham Gibbons) in the 10 furlongs handicap at 17.20 CET and Cheveton in the second division of the 5 furlongs handicap at 18.20. Both of them are on a long losing run but are well handicapped on their old form, and with ground conditions in their favour, could be worth a small each-way bet.

The best race at Lingfield is the 1 1/2 mile handicap for 3yo´s at 17.05, but there are question marks over several of the runners - either they have never run on this surface or they are badly handicapped or they are moving up in distance; one who ticks most of the boxes is Plutocracy (David Lanigan/ Ted Durcan), who was beaten last time by Evangelist (Sir Michael Stoute/ Ryan Moore), but is now slightly better off and could well be better suited by this track. Mickael Barzalona rides top-weight Winterlude for Charlie Appleby, and like several of the jockeys here, will be moving on to the evening meeting at Lingfield, where he can score on Dancing Sands at 20.40.

The N.H. season is slowly getting into gear, and there could be some decent performers in action today at Wetherby and Punchestown. It is probably safest to stick to teams already in top form, and that means Charlie Longsdon and Noel Fehily who are having a real purple patch. They can be on the scorecard at Wetherby today with Grandads Horse at 16.55 and Long Wave at 18.00. The ground is still on the quick side at both these meetings, and that should suit German-bred oldtimer Schelm (Ronnie O´Leary/ JS McGarvey), another one who is well handicapped on his old form.