Group race in Ireland today

The only black type race of the day in the U.K. and Ireland is the Group Three Vintage Crop Stakes over 1 3/4 miles at Navan at 16.55 CET. Vintage Crop was of course trained by Dermot Weld, who sent him to Australia to win the Melbourne Cup - the first ever non-Aussie horse to do so- and the trainer can take this with the very lightly-raced but unbeaten Forgotten Rules (Pat Smullen). He is a potential champion stayer and we think that he can concede 5 lbs to his opponents here, although Biographer (David Lanigan/ George Baker) - runner-up to him at Ascot last October- Kingfisher (Aidan and Joseph O´Brien) and Answered (Jim Bolger/ Kevin Manning) will be tough nuts to crack on these terms.

Otherwise today´s racing ia all very low key, with jumps racing at Market Rasen and Stratford in England and Limerick in Ireland, while Ripon stages the only U.K. flat racing. German-trained runners over jumps in England have become very rare now that Christian von der Recke, who had a really good strike rate, concentrates almost entirely on flat racing, but the Weilerswist trainer sends Desroches to run in the mares selling hurdle at Stratford at 15.55 and has booked a top jockey, Richard Johnson. She won a chase at Zweibrücken last month before becoming outclassed in a much better event at Mannheim. She is no star, but this is a very weak race and she could well prevail.

Our main fancy at Market Rasen is Get Home Now (Peter and Sean Bowen) in the handicap hurdle at 16.40; he is very inconsistent but seems to reserve his best form for this track, where he has already won twice. Anotjher course specialist is Oldtimer Osteopathic Remedy (Michael Dods/ Connor Beasley) in the mile handicap at Ripon at 16.50; he was won 4 times over this CD and is now very well handicapped on his old form. Our best bet here however is Secret Hint (Andrew Balding/ David Probert) in the fillies and mares handicap over 6 furlongs at 16.15; she was runner-up to Ridge Ranger (Eric Alston/ Jason Hart) last time at Wetherby, with 3 more of these behind, and could reverse the placings on 7 lbs better terms. Top-weight Love Island (Richard Whitaker/ George Chaloner) is the main danger.

Betting forecast:
1. Race: Toscanini - Father Frost - Beach Belle
2. Race: Stone Mountain - Gleine - Haqeeba
3. Race: Bubbly Bellini - In Salutem - Sassaway
4. Race: Forgotten Rules - Answered - Biographer
5. Race: Ivanovich Gorbatov - Time To Inspire - My Twinkle
6. Race: Dragon Fei - Curvy - Sierra Sun
7. Race: Jinsha Lake - Dawn Mirage - Shinghari