5 poor meetings today

plenty of runners today but mainly of very poor quality. There is flat racing this afternoon at Nottingham and in the evening at Kempton, while they go over jumps at Taunton and Worcester and also Punchestown in Ireland.
It is interesting that the two divisions of the 5 furlongs sprint handicap that open the card at Nottingham, both feature previous winners of the race -Steel Rain (Mrs Evans/ Matthew Cosham) at 14.30 CET and Lupo d´Oro (Jim Best/ Steve Drowne) half an hour later. Both are now on a long losing run, but are extremely well handicapped as a result and it is possible that a return to the scene of old victories may enable them to recover past ability. The 2yo maiden here at 16.00 has some potentially useful performers engaged, including the well-bred Storm the Stars (William Haggas/ Joe Fanning), beaten in a photo-finish in a hot maiden at Newmarket and that form could be good enough here. Andrew Balding continues in tremendous form and can take the 1 3/4 mile handicap at 17.00 with the lightly-raced Nabatean (David Probert). who has twice run well in better company and looks a very promising young stayer.
Balding occasionally has runners over hurdles and could be on the mark at Taunton with German-bred Dandy (Tom O´Brien) at 15.40; he will need to be quite useful to win on his debut against two previous winnmers. but he won 5 races on the flat. Another German-bred who can score over jumps is Lysino (Dr. Newland/ Noel Fehily); he has a 7 lbs penalty for winning last week., but jumped so well that he can probably win again.

Betting forecast Nottingham:
1. Race: Haajes - Boxing Shadows - Ambitious Icarus
2. Race: Fredricka - Indian Tinker - Rylee Mooch
3. Race: Arthur`s Way - Speedfit Rules - Chilworth Bells
4. Race: Storm The Stars - Golden Horn - Champagne Bob
5. Race: Dubai Star - Lightning Spear - Bahamian C
6. Race: Nabatean - Civil War - Dara Tango
7. Race: Time Square - Monopoli - Nellies Quest