4/5 jumps meetings today

It is almost from the sublime to the ridiculous, as yesterday´s racing with 4 high-class flat cards is followed by today´s fields, with no flat racing at all in the U.K., but 3 N.H. fixtures. Impossible to imagine what is the point of all this.

The only flat racing now comes from Ireland, but even there the Fairyhouse card is well below par for a Sunday. Main feature is the listed race over 6 furlongs at 16.40 CET. Slade Power won this in 2012, but there is nothing in today´s field of his calibre and indeed the likely favourite Darwin (Aidan and Joseph O´Brien) has been beaten out of sight by him on both his 2014 starts. However this ex-US runner had some decent form last season and should be good enough to account for this field, with stable companion Sparrow (Seamus Heffernan) the main danger, along with fellow 3yo Sailors Swan (Dermot Weld/ Pat Smullen).

Best race in the U.K. is the 3 mile handicap hurdle at 16.45 at Southwell, where Shubaat (John Ferguson/ Barry Geraghty), Master Malt (Jonjo O´Neill/ Tony McCoy) and Masterofdeception (Dr.Newland/ Christopoher Ward) are all chasing hat-tricks. None of them appears to be well handicapped now, so we shall take a chance on bottom-weight Green Wizard (Sue Smith/ Jonathan England) who stays well and is on a very lenient mark.