2 very poor meetings today

Plumpton today has been abandoned, but racing at Ayr goes ahead after an early morning inspection. The going will be very testing, and with the wet weather continuing, there are certain to be more abandonments this week. The card at Ayr is very low grade and we expect a couple of winners for Irish trainers, who usually do well at this track. Layla Joan (Gordon Elliott/ Jason Maguire) at 13.45 and half an hour later Mclovin (Stuart and Stephen Crawford) both look likely winners, while Jim Bowie (James Lambe/ Tony McCoy) also has a chance with bottom wieight in the handicap chase at 16.20. However here we prefer And The Man (Nicky Richards/ Brian Harding) despite the weight concession; he runs his best races here, including last time out, and we shall ignore the fact that he was pulled up on 5 of his previous 6 starts.The handicap hurdle at 15.50 looks tricky; the two German-breds Solis (Dianne Sayer/ Ryan Mania) and Amore Mio (Lucinda Russell/ Peter Buchanan) could go well, but we are worried about the ground, and just prefer Hellorboston (Donald McCain/ Maguire), although Little Boy Boru could also run well and might complete a double for the Crawfords.

The racing on the all-weather at Wolverhampton is even worse in terms of quality, and there are some very small fields as well. The Blue Dog (Phil McEntee/ Joe Doyle) attempts to complete a quick fourtimer at 18.10, all with this young claimer aboard, but we prefer Doldrums (Mark Johnston/ Joe Fanning), and the same trainer/ jockey combination may have already taken the previous race with Sir Charlie Kuntz, unlucky last time at Lingfield.