3 group races at Sandown today

Lots of racing today - three meetings this afternoon and four more this evening -but one fixture stands out and that is the excellent card at Sandown. This meeting used to be two days of mixed flat and N.H. racing, but this has now been changed with just flat racing now on the Friday and just jumps racing tomorrow. Whether this is an improvement, we would not like to say, but certainly today´s flat card, despite small fields, is the best of the year in the U.K. so far.

The three group races all have 7 runners or less but are still very competive. The Group Two bet365 mile at 15.45 sees the return of Top Notch Tonto (Brian Ellison/ Dale Sift), one of the most improved horses of 2013, who ended the season with an excellent second place in the QEII Mile. That is the best form here, but even so we are not sure that he can defeat Montiridge (Richard Hannon/ Richard Hughes making his comeback from injury) who ran some really good races last year and is likely to improve further. he is also 2 vrom 2 at Sandown, while Penitent (David O´Meara/ Danny Tudhope) is also unbeaten here. On ratings Garswood (Richard Fahey( Ryan Moore) also has a good chance, but we are not convinced that he really stays a mile, while Tulllius (Andrew Balding/ Jimmy Fortune) is a top handicapper (runner-up in theLincoln) and also deserves his chance. This is trickier than it seems, but Richard Hannon has made an excellent start to first season in charge and we hope that Montiridge will score here.

Hannon and Hughes also have a decent chance with Truth or Dare in the Classic Trial over 10 furlongs half an hour later, but the one to beat here is surely Western Hymn (John Gosden/ William Buick), an imnpressive winner of both his starts so far, who looks every Inch a true Derby prospect.

Only 5 runners in the Gordon Richard Stakes over the same trip at 15.10, but this probably only concerns two of them - Sky Hunter (Saeed bin Suroor/ Silvestre de Sousa) and Telescope (Sir Michael Stoute/ Ryan Moore). The Godolphin runner was trained by Andre Fabre last season and his only defeat came when third in the Prix du Jockey Club, while Telescope was ante-post favourite for the 2013 Derby before various setbacks put him out of action. Both are potential Group One winners and should have this rsce to themselves. Empire Storm (Mike Attwater/ Paul Hanagan) was previously with Andreas Wöhler and was one of the top German milers, but we shall be amazed if he is good enough to trouble to two principals here over a trip that is in any case too far.

Et voilà nos tuyaux pour les courses:
1ère course: Sacred Act - Cricklewood Green - End Of Line
2ème course: Telescope - Sky Hunter - Noble Mission
3ème course: Top Notch Tonto - Montiridge - Garswood
4ème course: Truth Or Dare - Master Carpenter - Red Galileo
5ème course: Charles Molson - Pushkin Museum - Montaigne
6ème course: Millionaires Row - Perfect Light - Wahgah
7ème course: Windshear - Gothic - Elite Army