3 poor meetings today

With Christmas around the ´corner and the huge fixtures at the end of the week at Kempton, Leopardstown and elsewhere, there is no point in expecting high class racing today, so we have 3 very modest cards. Lingfield was due to stage N.H. racing, but after the heavy midweek rain it was wisely decided to switch the meeting to an all-weather flat card. The best race is the 7 furlongs handicap at 15.30 CET, in which Nassau Storm (Will Knight/ Jim Crowley) is exoected to start favourite after two decent efforts in hot handicaps at Kempton. However he has never run at Lingfield before, so we give slight preference to Jungle Bay (Jane Chapple-Hyam/ Martin Dwyer), who won over 6 furlongs here last time out but also stays this longer trip. The 2 miles handicap which follows half an hour later could be dominated by two horses that have recently changed stables - the lightly-raced Spiritoftomintoul (Tony Carroll/ Adam Kirby) and Clerk´s Choice (William Jarvis/ Crowley), who has smart form over hurdles, having run respectably at the last 3 Cheltenham Festivals. He is our choice, although in the long run the former is probably capable of more improvement.

There is jumps racing at Bangor - with a lot of non-runners due to the heavy ground- and in Ireland at Thurles. Donald McCain usually does well at Bangor and he can land a treble here for his biggest owner with Classic Move at 15.10, Benzanno at 15.40 and Cloudante in the bumper an hour later, all partnered by stable jockey Jason Maguire. The main event at Thurles is the hurdle race at 14.20, in which Willie Mullins´ unbeaten and potentially very smart Un De Sceaux (Ruby Walsh) has only two moderate opponents. Trainer and jockey can follow up with Urano in the maiden hurdle at 15.50, who is due for a win after finishing runner-up five times, but Thunder And Roses (Dessie Hughes/ Davy Russell) has similar ability and may prove stronger over this trip.