Mainly handicaps

4 U.K. meetings today, but all at a low level and mainly handicaps: Brighton and Ripon this afternoon, and Yarmouth this evening, as well as Southwell where they go over jumps. These are not punter-friendly cards, and with the Derby Meeting coming up at the weekend, punters are advised to keep stakes low and save up for a decent bet at Epsom.

The "best" race of the day is the mile handicap at 16.55 at Ripon, which features several oldtimers, most of whom have met repeatedly. 11yo Suits Me (David Barron/ Phillip Makin), one of several front-runners in the field, won this last year, with 2011 winner Dubai Dynamo (Ruth Carr/ Peter McDonald) third and Osteopathic Remedy (Michael CDods/ Connor Beasley) 4th. The last-named ran badly .last time in the race in which Bold Prediction(Karl Burke/ Joey Haynes) was runner-up and Dubai Dynamo third. Bold Prediction, a 4yo, is the youngest horse in the field and possibly the only one with much scope for improvement, but on the score of handicapping we just prefer 9yo Dubai Dynamo, who is at least more consistent than most of these and currently in good form.

At Brighton 6 of the 7 races are low grade handicaps. The mile handicap at 17.40 has the biggest field of the day with 13 runners, but most of them are thoroughly unreliable. We shall take a chance on Lutine Charlie (Pat Eddery/ Oisin Murphy), whose last win was almost 2 years ago over this CD and has this season´s hottest apprentice in the saddle.

Although some of the top Newmarket trainers have runners at Yarmouth this evening, this is all third division stuff. Troy Boy (Robin Bastiman/ Silvestre de Sousa) was an 80-1shot last time when runner-up at Ayr 12 days ago, easily the best performance of his career. That was a poor race, but the 10 furlongs handicap here at 19.25 is even worse, and if he can repeat that form, he should go close.

Our each-way hope at Southwell is Tinseltown (Brian Rothwell/ Lynn Alexander) at 20.45; he is another very inconsistent performer, but was runner-up in this race last year and is also a CD winner with this rider off a higher rating.