5 more poor meetings today

Very weak sport today with nothing at the 4 flat meetings - Brighton and Beverley this afternoon, Leicester and Ballinrobe (Ireland) this evening, and the jumps card this evening at Newton Abbot grabbing one´s attention.

To be honest, class 6 handicaps at Brighton and Beverley do not in our opinion offer many betting opportunities, but that is basically what we have this afternoon, with both tracks offering one lonely class 4 handicap as their "best" race of the day. At Beverley it is over 10 furlongs at 16.15, with the two 7yo´s at the bottom of the handicap, Tin Pan Alley (David Griffiths/ David Allan) and King of the Celts (Tim Easterby/ Rachel Richardson) worth a second look. The former had never won a race until a fortnight ago, but has now won twice- both this CD- in quick succession; however he has gone up 12 lbs for his pains, and we prefer the latter, whose jockey is good value for her 5 lbs allowance. At Brighton we also like the bottom weight - Midlander (Mark Johnston/ Franny Norton) in the 5 furlongs race at 16.00; the Yorkshire trainer has a good record here and it could be significant that this, the only 3yo in the field, is his only runner here today.

Another trainer with a good course record is Paul Nicholls at Newton Abbot, where he has a 33% strike rate. He saddles Dormello Mo (Sam Twiston-Davies) in the novice chase at 20.00, who was the best of these over hurdles. However he only scrambled home on his chasing debut and has never raced as far as today´s trip of 2 1/2 miles. Sporting Boy (Johnny Farrelly/ Noel Fehily) has already won twice over fences, including tjhis CD., but has to give him weight, so it might be worth chancing the mare My Legal Lady (HS Howe/ Tom Scudamore), who stays well and is getting lots of weight, although chasing for the first time. Weight could also be decisive in the following handicap hurdle. Dubai Prince (John Ferguson/ Aidan Coleman) won two Group races on the flast and has shown good form over sticks; he is clearly the class act here but has to concede 17 lbs to ex-German Collodi (David Bridgwater/ Tom Cannon), who seemed to be coming back to form last time and was no slouch when trained on the flat by Peter Schiergen for Klaus Allofs.