Ludlow and Taunton

More low grade stuff today, with jumping at Ludlow and Taunton and all-weather flat racing at Lingfield and Kempton (evening); a glance at the map will show how idiotic this race planning is.

Ludlow has arguably the best card and John Ferguson, who has his string in great form, looks likely to saddle some winners. In the opening juvenile hurdle at 14.30 CET he runs Swivel (AP McCoy), quite useful on the flat and who made a decent debut over sticks; the one he has to worry about is John Constable (Evan Williams/ Paul Moloney), who is making his hurdles debut - he was just as good on the flat and is even better bred, being an own brother to St. Leger and Gold Cup winner Leading Light. Ferguson also runs chasing debutant New Years Eve (Jack Quinlan) in the handicap chase at 15.00 - but this one looks very tricky- but his best chance is probably with Father Edward (McCoy) in the maiden hurdle at 16.00, where Horsehill (Oliver Sherwood/ Leighton Aspell) and New Horizons (Nicky Henderson/ David Bass) would appear to be the main dangers. We also like Auldthunder (Micky Hammond/ Jamie Bargery) in the handicap chase at 16.30; he would have won easily last time at Catterick but for falling at the last and this race looks equally weak- and he has one of the best claimers on board.

At Taunton, Bladoun (David PIpe/ Tom Scudamore), much improved last time when winning at Leicester, is the likely favourite for the handicap hurdle at 16.10, but the handicapper put him up 13 lbs for that victory, so we prefer bottom weight Rugged Jack (Vic Dartnall/ Jack Doyle). Another one we like here is Tara Tavey (Kevin Bishop/ Daniel Hiskitt) at 17.10, runner-up over this CD last week and facing weak opposition today.