Newbury and Doncaster

The two N.H. tracks today both have much stronger cards tomorrow. but Newbury and Doncaster have some competitive racing today as well, and are much more interesting than the all-weather meetings.

AP McCoy continues his triumphant farewell tour of Britain at Newbury and we expect him to have another good day. He can certainly win the first two races on Sebastian Beach at 15.00 CET and Minella Rocco half an hour later, both trained by Jonjo O´Neill and likely to start warm favourites. O´Neill is also the trainer of Bandit Country, who makes his chasing debut at 16.35; this is always a risk, but we think that he is quite well handicapped here on his hurdling form, and although owned by Coolmore, he is bred to be a chaser. O`Neill and McCoy also team up with Official Ben at 17.40, but this looks trickier, especially as he is up considerably in trip. Island Cruise (Pat Murphy/ Leighton Aspell) ran well enough last time at Warwick to suggest that he can score here.

A coiuple of old German-breds catch our eye at Doncaster, Favorite Girl (Mike Appleby/ Jonathan England), who hads top-weight in the Mares´handicap hurdle at 17.20, and Quicuyo (James Ewart/ Lucy Alexander). The former had no chance in a better race here last time, but in this grade must go close, while the latter, now a veteran of 12, has done us many good turns over the years and loves Doncaster, here he has won 3 times; he is extremely well handicapped on his old form, and while he has probably deteriorated a bit since then, can still show today that there is life in the old dog yet.