Monday, January 19, 2015

Bangor abandoned

Today´s meeting at Bangor has been abandoned because of frost, while there will be another inspection later to see if Exeter can go ahead. If Exeter is on, we expect Lizzie Kelly to continue her good run on horses owned by her mother and trained by her stepfather Nick Williams with Queen of the Stage in the mares handicap hurdle at 15.50 CET. She is much improved and has won her last two races; although she has to concede weight all round here, the opposition does not look up to much. The meeting can also feature a double for jockey Sam Twiston-Davies, on Paul Nicholls´ French import Qualando at 14.20 and his father´s Winged Crusader an hour later.

If Exeter is off, the only racing left would be the low-level all-weather card at Wolverhampton. The best race here is the fillies handicap over 9 1/2 furlongs at 16.40, in which all 5 runners are 4yo´s. Persona Grata (Ed Walker/ Danny Tudhope) is the obvious favourite; after winning her first 3 races, all here, she went under by a short head last time over this CD to a better Godolphin runner who has won again since. Topweight Uchenna (David Simcock/ Jim Crowley) has top weight here after running in better races last season; she is out of a smart German mare by Acatenango and despite coming off a break of 6 months, looks the most lilkely danger.