Modest Monday

A very modest start to the week, with low grade jumps meetings at Fakenham and Southwell as well as all-weather racing from Wolverhampton.

The best horse running today is probably Toby Lerone (Dan and Harry Skelton) who goes for the novice hurdle at 16.20 CET at Southwell. This is his first race over sticks for almost 2 years but he is a useful chaser, winning 3 times and running in decent races, and if he can adapt back to the smaller obstacles, he should win here. A German-bred to catch our eye here is A Keen Sense (David Dennis/ Brian Hughes) half an hour earlier. He has never yet troubled the judge in 9 outings, but he is on such a favourable mark here that he must have a chance of finally showing some proper form, especially as the opposition looks completely exposed.

There are also some German-breds running at Fakenham, including Aviator (James Eustace/ Jack Quinlan) at 15.30 and Aviador (Lucy Wadham/ Luke Ingram) at 17.30. Despite the similarity of the names, they are not related, but both could go close today. We also like Cafe au Lait (Tony Middleton/ Kevin Jones) at 16.30; he was runner-up in both the Austrian and Dutch Derbys for Christian von der Recke and has also showed useful form over hurdles. AP McCoy is here, and although we do not fancy him in the above races, he should not go home without a winner- his best chance is possibly Artifice Sivola for Wadham at 17.00.

The best bet at Wolverhampton is Godolphin´s 3yo Subcontinent (Charlie Appleby/ Tom Marquand) in the 9 1/2 furlongs maiden at 18.40. The stable is operating at a great strike rate and this well-bred Dubawi colt showed enough at two to suggest that he can get off the mark against this weak opposition.