Mainly handicaps

Another poor day´s sport today, with mainly low grade handicaps at the 3 afternoon N.H. meetings, the best of which is Warwick, where 2 runners with a German background have caught our eye. Chatez (Alan King/ Aidan Coleman) was a decent handicapper on the flat and won his first race over hurdles well enough; he should be able to concede weight all round in the 3yo hurdle at 13.30 CET - his dam is from one of Baron Ullmann´s best families. An hour later Attimo (Charlie Mann/ Noel Fehily) runs in the handicap chase over 2 1/2 miles; he has nowhere near the ability of his half-brother Altano, but would not need to in order to run well in this company.

The runner with the best German pedigree running today is Seventh Sky (Charlie Mann/ Gavin Sheehan) who goes for a similar race at Taunton at 15.10; he is a half-brother to German Derby winner Samum and Schiaparelli from the most successful Germany of recent years. However his record over jumps is patchy and although he has some talent, we fear that the very soft ground (the weather is bad all over the U.K. at present) will be against him. Our best bet at this meeting is Unforgettable (Peter Bowen/ Richard Johnson) at 16.10; the old boy is on a long losing run, but has come down the weights and is now very well handicapped, and this looks a weak race.

At Newcastle there is a huge field for the handicap hurdle at 15.10, but this is clearly a case of quantity rater than quality, as most of them are out of form; one exception is Jukebox Melody (John Wade/ Keith Renwick), who has been put up 7 lbs for winning at Sedgefield last time, but could possibly still score again.