Bank Holiday

Today is a Bank Holiday in the U.K. which means there is lots of low level racing, but nothing of great importance, and no racing in the evening although there is Irish racing at Ballinrobe.The best race of the day is the Zetland Gold Cup, a 10 furlongs handicap at 17.15 CET at Redcar. This is no longer the top event it used to be, but it is still quite a competitive race in which none of the 12 runners can be easily excluded. Luca Cumani has a good record here and his Ajmany (Andrea Atzeni) looks likely to start favourite after his excellent second place at Newmarket last time. However he has been put up 6 lbs for that, and may find the going still too soft for him, although it is now drying out after all the rain at the end of last week. Strictly Silver (Alan Bailey/ Graham Gibbons) was not far behind him at Newmarket and is now much better off, so we think he could be a more interesting bet at the prices. Whispering Warrior (David Simcock/ Shane Kelly) and Ginger Jack (Geoff Harker/ Peter McDonald) are other possibles, as are the two top-weights Sennockian Star (Mark Johnston/ Silvestre de Sousa) and Ennistown (Charlie Appleby/ Mickael Barzalona), it would be nice to see the latter win in view of all the speculation last week about the trainer/ jockey relationship, but these two will not find it easy with their big weights and we shall stick to Strictly Silver (e.w.) in a very open race.

The only jumps racing today is at Cartmel and as this pretty Lake District track only stages two meetings a year (now and at the August Bank Holiday) it is a good idea to look for CD winners. We have found two in the 2 miles 1 furlong handicap chase at 16.25, top-weight Dunowen Point (Donald McCain/ Tony McCoy) and Sergeant Pink (Dianne Sayer/ James Reveley), who are both 2/2 over this CD. At the weights we prefer the latter. Our best bet here however is German-bred Cafe au Lait (Tony Middleton/ Richard Johnson) in the 4yo hurdle at 15.20. When trained by Christian von der Recke he was running in much better company, and against this weak opposition and on faster ground he must have a decent chance.