Nottingham abandoned

Today´s Nottingham meeting has been abandoned, as parts of the track are still waterlogged after the heavy rain of the past few days. The rain also caused problems for Ripon yesterday, were the ground was changed to "heavy" after the first 2 races, resulting in many non-runners. However there should be no problem with this evening´s racing there, although the going will still be testing. Plenty of rain fell on Epsom as well, and the going is now given there as "soft". However better weather is forecast and on Derby Day (Saturday) the ground should be good to soft and perfect for almost everybody.

French racing today

Flat racing today at Fontainebleau and trotting from Laval (including the latest stage in the Grand National du Trot). There are two German-trained runners at Fontainebleau; Team Valor´s Cherry Mandy (Christophe Soumillon) in the 1200 metres race for 3yo´s at 15.05 CET has clearly the better prospects. She was trained by Uwe Ostmann when winning her only race last season, but it is now with Mario Hofer, who has done extremey well with his French runners this year. Wilfried Kujath´s Reel Star (Mikael Barzalona) runs in a 3yo seller over 1800 metres for young jockeys and apprentices at 16.05. Main feature is the listed Prix Melisande for 3yo fillies over 2000 metres, which could go to Pascal Bary´s Perfect Hand (Stephane Pasquier).

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.