8 meetings today

There are no fewer than 8 meetings today in the U.K. and Ireland, with Newmarket, Newcastle and Brighton racing on the flat tjhis afternoon, and Haydock and Catterick this evening, while in Ireland there are two N.H. evening meetings at Down Royal and Tramore, but it must be said that the level of racing at all these meetings - even Newmarket - is low.

The most interesting card is at the evening meeting at Stratford which concentrates on Hunter Chases, and some of the top British hunter chasers are running. This is especially true of the Foxhunters Champion Hunter Chase over 3 1/2 miles at 21.00 CET, in which Paint the Clouds (warren Greatrex/ Sam Waley-Cohen), will attempt to follow up on his easy win in this event a year ago. He faces a very strong opponent in Pacha du Polder (Paul Nicholls/ William Biddick), who finished runner-up to the top Irish hunter chaser On The Fringe at Aintree; on his previous run On the Fringe had been a very easy winner of the Cheltenham Foxhunters with Paint the Clouds a long way back in third, so collateral form suggests that the Nicholls runner be preferred. We are not so sure, as Paiint The Clouds has since run really well at Sandown in a much tougher race, and his CD form possibly gives him the edge.

The Newmarket card is of course not totally devoid of interest with most of the top jockeys there and we would not be surprised to see Ryan Moore amo0ng the winners. He has 5 rides booked and they all seem to have chances, although in the 7 furlongs handicap at 16.35 we just prefer oldtimer Santefisio (Keith Dalgleish/ James Doyle).