4 flat meetings today

The flat season is winding down but there are 4 meetings today, including Salisbury and the Curragh - both staging their last fixture of 2010, as well as Windsor and nearby Kempton on the all-weather. There are some huge fields at the Curragh - 162 runners in 8 races, including 30 each in the two divisions of the 7 furlongs handicap and another 24 in the 2yo handicap, all over 7 furlongs.

Punters should swerve these races and look instead at the fillies maiden over 9 furlongs at 16.20 CET, which on all known form should go to Dermot Weld´s Phrase (Pat Smullen); the only danger is likely to be the Aga Khan´s well-bred debutante Riynaaz (John Oxx/ Fran Berry). The Curragh´s season ends with another large field maiden at 17.5, this time over 1 1/2 miles. Aidan O´Brien has 3 runners here, the pick of them probably being Battleoftrafalgar, partnered by his son Joseph. However this son of Galileo looks rather one-paced and has been placed on his last 8 starts, often starting favourite. We prefer another Galileo - Charles O´Brien´s Dearest Girl, with Johnny Murtagh up. As the owners are Jacqueline O´Brien and Sue Magnier, the trainer´s mother and sister, Murtagh is not exactly deserting his stable here and it will probably all stay in the family.

The best bet at the 3 British meetings should be Godolphin´s Secrecy (Saeed bin Suroor/ Frankie Dettori) in the 7 furlongs conditions race at 17.20 at Salisbury. He has several pounds in hand on official ratings and should be too good for the handicappers Carnaby Street (Richard Hannon/ Dane O´Neill) and Balducci (Andrew Balding/ Jimmy Fortune).

The most interesting runner at Windsor is Colour Scheme (Brian Meehan/ Shane Kelly), who started at 40/1 when runner-up in a strong Newbury maiden in April. He has not been seen since, but the form of that race has worked out very well and he can beat modest opposition in the mile maiden at 18.10.

There is a similer situation with Googlette (Ed Vaughan/ Jamie Spencer), last seen when runner-up at Newmarket in May and now contesting the 6 furlongs race for 2yo maiden fillies at 16.35 at Kempton; however the extremely well-bred Dubai Queen (Luca Cumani/ Kieren Fallon) looks a big danger on her debut. It is possibly of interest that Richard Hughes rides here, rather than at the other two meetings with several Hannon runners, and he has chances of a double for Jeremy Noseda on Sea Change at 17.00 and Illustrious Prince half an hour later, though both are quite tricky handicaps.