3 N.H. meetings today

Our earlier optimism proved unjustified, as Newcastle has now been abandoned and Leicester is facing a second inspection. There will be plenty of runners today, with many leading trainers having made entries. Paul Nicholls, who has suffered a number of expensive reverses recently, sends just one horse to Leicester- Valick (Christian Williams), who runs in the 3 mile maiden chase at 16.30.

Valick was very disappointing last time, but could still be good enough to score here, with Backfromthecongo (Richard Lee/ Oliver Greenall) and Prof de l´Isle (Henry Daly/ Andrew Tinkler), 3rd and 4th in a similar race this CD before Christmas, the obvious dangers. Best race at Leicester is the handicap hurdle at 17.05, in which Mohayer (Jonjo O´Neill/ Tony McCoy), top-weight Ashfield´ s Dream ( Evan Williams/ Paul Moloney) and hat-trick-seeking Stoney´s Treasure (Alan King/ Wayne Hurtchinson) are our 3 against the field.

Paul Nicholls has also runners in just one race at Exeter, the novice hurdle at 17.50, in which he runs Bump in the Night (Harry Skelton) - who has not run for 16 months, and Livinonedge (Nick Scholfield); both could finish in the money. We expect that Rebeccas Choice (Mark Rimell/ Peter Toole) can follow up a very easy success on New Years Eve by taking the 3 mile handicap hurdle here at 15.30, although he has been up a stone for that win. Rimell also saddles top-weight Ours (Aidan Coleman) in the handicap chase at 16.40, but here we prefer Anay Turge (Nigel Hawke/ David Dennis), who deserves a win after finishing second 3 times running.

Best race at the N. Irish track at Down Royal is the 2 1/2 mile hurdle at 15.10. Ruby Walsh, who surprisingly only managed one winner yesterday at Taunton, can take this on Willie Mullins´ C´est ca, 3rd of 30 in a valuable handicap last time. On official ratings he faces a stiff task, but that was a good effort. Jessica Harrington´s Hugo de Vindecy (Barry Geraghty) looks the main danger.