Lingfield (N.H.), Southwell (N.H.) and Wolverhampton (a.w.)

at first sight it looks as of all today´s 3 British meetings are on the all-weather, but in fact Lingfield and Southwell both switch to jumps racing this afternoon. Southwell has the better card, and some quite useful performers line up for the novice chase over 3 miles at 16.10. Burton Port (Nicky Henderson/ Barry Geraghty) in unbeaten over fences and looks a bright prospect but he is set to concede weight to The Sliotar (David Pipe/ Tony McCoy) and Blazing Bailey (Alan King/ Wayne Hutchinson).

The latter pair met recently at Ffos Las, where the Pipe horse came out narrowly on top, but Blazing Bailey now reopposes on 6 lbs better terms. He was the best of these over hurdles, and although his attitude has sometimes been questioned, he must be the selection at these weights. King and Hutchinson also have a good chance with Nikos Extra in the 3 mile handicap chase at 15.40, but both Oscar Park (David Arbuthnot/ Daryl Jacob) and Idle Talk (Donald McCain/ Brian Harding) would be very dangerous if anywhere near their best form of a couple of seasons ago.

At Lingfield, the novice hurdle at 15.20 looks the most interesting race. Sarando (Paul Webber/ Liam Treadwell) started at 33-1 last time, but gave hot favourite Salden Licht a fright and he can go one better now. Venetia Williams´ Samurai Way (Sam Thomas) is an obvious danger, but might prefer better ground, while The Rainbow Hunter (Andrew Turnell/ Edward Cookson) has already won on the heavy, but therefore carries a penalty. German-bred Amore Mio (Emma Lavelle/ Jack Doyle) is another one who would not like the ground too heavy, and we give prference to Quinte du Chatelet (David Pipe/ Tom Scudamore) and Magnifico (David Evans/ Andrew Glassonbury) in a very open handicap hurdlw at 17.20.

The most difficult puzzle for punters to solve today is the 5 furlong sprint which opens Wolverhampton´s all-weather card at 15.00, as almost all the 13 runners are CD specialists. One notable example is Almaty Express (John Weymes/ Chris Catlin), 11 of whose 13 career victories have come over this CD. He was out of form last autumn, but could be refreshed now after a short break and has dropped to a very tempting mark. One horse who could possibly use a break is Obe Gold (Paul Howling/ Jean-Pierre Guillambert), who will be running for the 8th time since Christmas when he contests the 7 furlongs seller at 16.00, He has kept his form really well, but this distance could be too far for him and we prefer Ravi River (David and Richard Evans) who ran a good race at Lingfield on Saturday and is in any case the highest-rated runner in this field.