historic races at Carlisle today

Carlisle stages its biggest race day of the year today with the Carlisle Bell over a mile at 17.10 CET and the Cumberland Plate over 1 /2 miles at 17.45 the main features. They are only class 4 handicaps, but with each worth 30,000 GBP much more valuable than your average handicap. They are also the oldest races still run, both dating back to the late 16th century when Elizabeth I was on the throne and Shakespeare was writing his plays. In fact they can claim to be the oldest sporting events in the world.
Both have large fields today and look extremely competitive. In the Bell Johnno (David and Adrian Nicholls) could start favourite after winning over CD a month ago, but we also like topweight Balducci (David O´Meara/ Danny Tudhope), back to form with an easy win at Nottingham 9 days ago; he has a 6 lbs penalty for that but is still well handicapped on his old form. O´Mearas´s other runner Toto Skyllachy (Sam James) is also in with a Chance, as are Party Royal (Mark Johnston/ Silvestre de Sousa) and especially Lord of the Dance (Michael Mullineaux/ Ryan Clark), who won the consolation race over this CD last year and is also on a very handy mark.
Some of the runners in the Plate look as if they have been laid out for the race and it is a really hot handicap. Cousin Khee (Hughie Morrison/ Jamie Spencer) was beaten in a photo-finish here last year and should be thereabouts again, but he has not run since November. Bottom-.weight Eltheeb (Philip Kirby/ Paul Mulrennan) ran here in both 2012 and 2013 and although unplaced was not far away and is well handicapped. Endless Credit (Luca Cumani/ Graham Gibbons) has been heavily backed; he is very lightly-raced and could be much better than his rating, but he lost his chance last time by pulling hard and must settle better today. German-bred Noble Alan (Nicky Richards/ Ian Brennan) is no spring chicken at 11, but is certainly capanle of winning off this mark.
Another oldtimer we like at this meeting is Tax Free (David and Adrian Nicholls) over 5 furlongs at 16.00. At 12 he is obviously not as fast as he used to be, but he is now running off his lowest rating for several years and we think he has a definite each-way chance today.
Another historic race being run today is the Bibury Cup at 17.20 at Salisbury, now a handicap for 3yo´s over 1 1/2 miles. Cumani has another fancied runner here in Kinshasa (Andrea Atzeni), but we just prefer Norse Star (Sylvester Kirk/ Ryan Moore).

Betting forecast:
1. Race: Songye - Twin Turbo - George Bowen
2. Race: Bahamian Sunrise - Fast Act - Straightothepoint
3. Race: Avon Breeze - Boxing Shadows - Hadaj
4. Race: Border Bandit - Al Muheer - George Rooke
5. Race: Barren Brook - Balducci - Sound Advice
6. Race: Dance King - Endless Credit - Aramist
7. Race: Angel Flores - Miaplacidus - Penina