France today

In France today the racing is also at a low level, with flat racing at Marseilles, N.H. racing at Auteuil and evening trotting from Vincennes. Main feature is the listed Prix Miror, a hurdle race for 4yo´s at 15.50 CET at Auteuil over 3600 metres.

Folkestone and Sedgefield this evening

The evening fare at Folkestone and Sedgefield (N.H.) is also pretty modest, and the most interesting race is probably the novice chase which kicks off proceedings at 19.30 CET at the Co. Durham track. Safari Run (Paula Robson/ Rose Davidson) and Chrysander (Evan Williams/ Paul Moloney) have already shown ability, while there are several chasing debutants with good hurdling form, among them Willie Pep (Charlie Egerton/ Tony McCoy), Pilca (Declan Carroll/ Johnny Farrelly) and Soubriquet (Maurice Barnes/ Michael McAllister). At Folkestpne, Ron Harris has a chance of winning both the better handicaps with the top-weights Tom´s Laughter (Kevin Ghunowa) at 20.20 and Flying Goose (Shane Kelly) half an hour later. The main dangers would appear to be Whotbarropw (Rod and James Millman) and Dingaan (Andrew Balding/ Liam Keniry) respectively.

Ripon and Southwell

Very little excitement to be expected today, with just two meetings (flat racing at Ripon and on the all-weather from Southwell) this afternoon and two more this evening, with no racing in Ireland. Southwell´s card is mediocre, and the "best" race is the class 5 handicap for 3yo´s over 7 furlongs at 16.45 CET. The top-weights Arabian Spirit (Ed Dunlop/ Robert Winston) and Montiboli ((Kevin Ryan/ Neil Brown) seem to hold the strongest claims; the former is still a maiden, but has run several decent races, while the latter is much improved and has won 2 of his last 3 races, including here. The main danger is Michael Bell´s Top Draw (Hayley Turner), who looked a bit unlucky the last twice. At Ripon, the class 3 handicap over 6 furlongs at 16.30 looks very open, with almost all the 10 runners having a chance. Three of them ran against each other at Thirsk 17 days ago, where Valery Borsov (David and Adrian Nicholls) ran out a ready winner from High Curragh (Kevin Ryan/ Paul Mulrennan) with badly-drawn Swinbrook (Richard Fahey/ Paul Hanagan) sixth. At the revised weights it is certainly possible that these placings will be reversed, but opposition could come from Malcheek (Tim Easterby/ David Allan), 6th of 15 in a hot handicap at York last time. Ed Dunlop´s Stock Market is probably better than a class 4 handicapper and can defy top-weight in the 10 furlongs handicap for 3yos at 17.00 with Ted Durcan in the saddle.