5 meetings today

5 meetings today and the most interesting is the N.H. fixture at Newbury; there is also jumps racing at Sedgefield and all-weather flat racing at Lingfield this afternoon as well as Wolverhampton and Dundalk in the evening. Trainer Nicky Henderson and his top jockey Barry Geraghty are usually the team to follow at Newbury and they have 3 good chances today: My Wigwam or Yours in the maiden hurdle that opens the card at 15.10 CET, and Thanks for Coming and Volnay de Thaix, who have top weight in the handicaps at 16.45 and 17.20 respectively. None of these races is exactly easy, but it will be disappointing if they don´t go home without at least one winner. Therer are two German-brdds in the handovcap hurdle at 16.10 and both could go well. Promisded Wings (Chris Gordon/ Tom Cannon) won this race last year and the Monsun gelding could go close again under top weight, although it is much more competitive this time. However our main hope is Aviador (Lucy Wadham/ Matt Crawley), by Paolini, who would probably have won last time but for unseating his rider at the last and seems well handicapped on his old form; we would not want any more rain for him however. Our best bet here is Mic´s Delight (Vic Dartnall/ Denis O´Regan) at 15.40; he has not won for a while but his recent form reads well enough in the context of this race.

The best race at Sedgefield is the novices handicap hurdle at 16.25 which looks wide open; our suggestion here is Knightly Escapade (Brian Ellison/ Jamey Reveley), who is up slightly in trip here but whose latest performance in a jumpers bumper at Kempton was good form. we also like Polstar (Hugh Whittington/ James Banks) at 17.30, who seems nicely handicapped after his easy success 3 weeks ago at Doncaster.