memories of Arkle

3 jumps cards this afternoon, followed by two all-weather meetings on the flat this evening. Easily the best racing comes from Bangor, where the main event is the Anne, Duchess of Westminster Memorial, a 3 mile handicap chase at 15.00 CET. Memories will be revived here of the great Arkle, regarded as the best chaser of all time, who was bred and owned by the Duchess, who lived in the Westminster family seat at nearby Eaton Hall. There is cettainly no Arkle in today´s field, but the race looks quite competitive, and difficult for punters as most of the runners are coming off a long break. The only one with recent form is Tom Ford (Rebecca Curtis/ Paul Moloney), an easy winner at Chepstow last month; he is up in grade here but still seems the one to beat., although we also like bottom weight Howards Legacy (Venetia Williams/ Liam Treadwell), who seems very well handicapped on his best form. The handicap hurdle an hour later is also a good race; Kentucky Hyden (Nicky Henderson/ Daryl Jacob), a leading juvenile last season and runner-up in the Triumph Hurdle, is one of the stable´s big hopes for this season and can win this on the way to better things.
It is interesting that Williams has sent her main jockey Aidan Coleman on the long journey to Exeter, where the ground is very soft indeed. He rides Jupiter Rex in the handicap hurdle at 14.40; this one won 7 successive races in the winter of 2012/13; to be honest, they were all pretty weak races and we are not sure that he is up to winning after this long break; Too Generous (David Pipe/ Tom Scudamore) has a good strike rate and loves heavy ground, he is our choice here., although bottom weight American LIfe (Tony Middleton/ James Banks), penalised 7 lbs for an easy win at Fontwell last week, is an obvious danger. German-bred Serienschock (Pipe/ Scu) has top weight in a handicap hurdle over a shorter trip an hour later; he had good form in France, but ran badly on his only U.K. start so far. We don´t fancy Venetia´s Leviathan either,so we choose Baby King (Tom George/ Paddy Brennan), who won his only race in Ireland in a huge field back in March and could be anything.
The best flat race today is the 7 furlongs conditions race at 21.10 at Kempton. Only 5 runners, bjut they are all decent. Marco Botti trains two of them and can take this with Patentar (Shane Kelly), who is top-rated here and has been running in better company.,

Betting forecast:
1. Race: Oscatara - Gus Macrae - Perfect Candidate
2. Race: Dundee - Askamore Darsi - Vujiyama
3. Race: Bob Ford - Knock A Hand - Herdsman
4. Race: Desert Recluse - Zaidiyn - Knight Bachelor
5. Race: Kentucky Hyden - Clondaw Kaempfer - El Macca
6. Race: Top Of The Glas - Sindarban - Guard Of Honour
7. Race: Wilcos Mo Chara - Racing Europe - Off Duty