Newcastle and Lingfield today

Newcastle now stages the only jumps racing in the U.K. today and with some small fields and heavy ground, the card is not at all punter-friendly. The best horse running here is Rolecarr (Mrs Hamilton/ Graham Watters), who is down in grade and contests the 3 mile handicap chase at 14.40 CET. He acts on the ground and obviously has a good chance in this company, but we wonder if he can concede 24 lbs to Bertie Milan (Neil Alexander/ Brian Harding), who has only ever won once - but that was on heavy, and he is generally consistent enough. Alexander can also take the opening mares novice hurdle with The Flaming Matron, ridden by Diarmuid O´Regan, younger brother to Denis.

The best betting opportunities here in our opinion are the handicap hurdles over 2 3/4 miles at 14.05 and over 2 miles at 15.15. In the former race we like Madam Lillibet (Sharon Watt/ Joseph Palmowski), who loves the ground, won at this meeting last year. and now seems very fairly handicapped. In the latter event, we of course go for the German-bred Lysino (Chris Grant/ Harding); this half-brother to Derby winner Lucky Speed has not really lived up to expectations but ran well over this CD a fortnight ago. He has been put up 4 lbs for that, as has the 4yo Nautical Twilight (Malcolm Jefferson/ Brian Hughes), also runner-up at the same meeting. The other dangers are John Dixon´s Circus Star, who won twice in November but has gone up 17 lbs, and the consistent Sam Lord (Jimmy Moffatt/ Dominic Elsworth), but we hope that Lysino can finally get off the mark over jumps here.

Easily the most valuable race of the day is the 1 1/2 miles handicap on the all-weather at 15.35 at Lingfield, which with 28k GBP to the winner is worth more than most German group races. As a result it is exteremely cpmpettive with all 14 runners in with a chance, although we cannot believe ex-Brazilian Group winner Energia Eros (Marco Botti/ Martin Harley) can win this under top weight on his first start in Europe. Botti´s other runners look more likely, buit our 3 against the field are Castilo Del Dianblo (David Simcock/ Jamie Spencer) - creeping up the weights, but ran very well at Kempton last time, Kashmir Peak (John Quinn/ Martin Lane), amd Shavansky (Rod Millman/ Shelley Birkett) - who goes well for this young jockey. The 6 furlongs handicap which follows at 16.10 looks equally tricky. Perfect Pasture (Mick Easterby/ Adam Kirby) has won 5 races on the trot, but has gone up a massive 35 lbs for his pains and is possibly better suited by 5 furlongs. We will take a chance with Diamond Charlie (Simon Dow/ Andrea Atzeni), who found 7 furlongs too far last time, but ran well over this CD before.