Low level racing today

No point in expecting classy racing today after the excitements of last week, and we have 3 very low level meetings, over jumps at Taunton and Southwell and on the all-weather at Chelmsford. There are some very small foields aswell, woith normal each-way betting totally impossible at Chelmsford, where the 6 furlongs handicap at 17.30 CET is the best race. Oriental Relation (James Given/ Tom Eaves) is our choice here; he won over this CD a month ago and has run well twice since, although he clearly had no chance in a listed race on Saturday. Related (David Simcock/ Fergus Sweeney) looks the main anger; he is best at seven furlongs but is down in grade here.

Local trainers Paul Nicholls and David PIpe are the trainers to follow at Taunton. Pipe has made several entries in the two divisions of the novice hurdle and can win them both with Perspicace at 15.50 and Vayland an hour later, both the choice of stable jockey Tom Scudamore. Nicholls can reply with It´s A Close Call at 15.15 and The Chuckmeister at 17.20, both with Sam Twiston-Davies, and the jockey can also take the staying chase at 17.50 on his father´s Pigeon Island; he has not won for ages, but has been running in much better company.

At Southwell we hope that a couple of German-breds run well- Attimo (Charlie Mann/ Gavin Sheehan), a half-brother to Altano, at 15.35 has been disappointing so far, but must have a chance in this weak race, while both All the Winds (Sam Lycett/ Peter Carberry) and Mr.Lando (Anne Batchelor/ Tom Cannon) could be placed in the handicap hjurdle at 17.10.