A bumper four National Hunt cards this afternoon in the UK and Ireland with action from Clonmel across the Irish Sea and domestic jump racing from Huntingdon, Musselburgh and Sedgefield.
Today’s BetVictor sponsored card from Ayr survived an 8am inspection. There is a cracking handicap chase over the minimum trip to open the card and Trust Thomas (12.40) can go one better than when runner up at Newcastle last time from a 3lb lower mark.
The highlight of an excellent card at Doncaster this afternoon is the Novices’ Chase over 2m which sees Josses Hill (1.00) look to go one better than on his Chase debut when he was, ultimately, well beaten by the excellent Ptit Zig at Ascot last month.
We have three Jumps’ cards to get our teeth into this afternoon and we begin in the north east at Sedgefield where Distime (1.50) is taken to go one better than on his seasonal reappearance when runner up to the very progressive Baileys Concerto at Aintree.
Soft ground is likely to be the order of the day for our turf meetings this afternoon and Emirates Skywards (4.40) is taken to go one better than on his two previous starts in the Mile Maiden at Leicester.
The recent rains have arrived in time for a cracking jumps card at Exeter and Regal Presence (3.20) needs good ground, has gone well fresh in the past and ran a cracker here back in March over C&D when just touched off from a 6lb lower mark.
David Barron’s Pearl Secret bounced back to form landing the Beverley Bullet at the East Yorkshire track; cut to 12/1 (from 16s) to finally fulfil the hype that has surrounding the colt for oh so long now and land the G1 Sprint Cup at Haydock.
There is a fascinating fillies’ maiden to start the proceedings at Lingfield with debutantes Winter Queen and Peace And War (2.10) of particular interest and it is the latter that gets the vote for Olly Stephens.
It is rare to have a race where all in the field won their previous race but that is what we have in the BetVictor sponsored 12f Handicap at Kempton Park this evening and all four have a realistic chance.