After the fantastic racing at the Cheltenham Festival, the racing isn’t quite at the same level this week. However, there is still some superb racing to look forward to this week, including Grade 2 action at Newbury and the return to flat turf action.
Monday 18th March
It’s the first day of the Irish Flat season, and it kicks off with a bang with an eight-race card at the Curragh, that includes the Group 3 Park Express stakes (3.40pm) and the Irish Lincolnshire (4.10pm). A P O’Brien won the race in 2022 with Mother Earth and of his two runners, Brilliant looks the pick of the pair.
In Britain, the two jumps fixtures come from Fontwell and Southwell, whilst the sole flat action comes on the all-weather in the evening at Newcastle.
Tuesday 19th March
Tuesday is a bit of a quiet one racing-wise, with just three meetings going to post. Exeter hosts a competitive-looking Veterans’ Handicap Chase (3pm), which features the likes of Come On Teddy, Raffle Ticket and Good Boy Bobby. The other jumps racing comes from Wetherby and the flat racing comes on the all-weather at Wolverhampton.
Away from the course, entries are revealed for the Topham Chase at the Aintree Meeting in April.
Wednesday 20th March
There’s plenty of prize money up for grabs on Haydock’s card, with £73,000 available across the six races. The pick of the racing is the Greyland 25th Anniversary Handicap Chase (3.50pm), with Venetia Williams’ Robyndzone returning to the scene of his easy win last year.
The other jumps fixture is at Market Rasen, whilst Southwell hosts the all-weather flat action in the evening.
Thursday 21st March
The six-race card at Ludlow features some competitive races, with Dan Skelton’s Vicki Vale aiming to land her first win of the season, having run well in defeat in each of her four races. There’s also jumps action at Chepstow and Cork, whilst the evening action comes on the all-weather at Southwell.
Friday 22nd March
The first of Newbury’s jumps finale takes place and there’s some excellent races to look forward to, including the handicap hurdle (4.08pm) that could feature the impressive Tea For Free and Becher Handicap Chase winner Ashtown Lad.
There’s further jumps racing at Hexham, whilst the flat UK action comes from Lingfield and Newcastle. Over in Ireland, Dundalk plays host to a floodlit all-weather meting.
Saturday 23rd March
The British Flat season kicks off at Doncaster with the Lincoln Handicap (3.35pm) one of the feature races on the card, where we could see last year’s 1-2 Migration and Awaal. There’s plenty of other interesting racing on the card, with the Spring Mile (2.25pm), which has a £75,000 prize pot.
The jumps season comes to a close at Newbury with another Premier raceday, which includes the Grade 2 Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle (3.15pm), won last year by Ilovethenightlife for Joe Tizzard.
There’s further afternoon racing at Bangor and Navan, whilst there’s two evening all-weather meetings at Newcastle and Wolverhampton.
Sunday 24th March
The week finishes with some excellent jumps racing at Ascot, with a trio of class 2 races to look forward to on the seven-race card. The flat racing continues at Doncaster, who hosts the second day of it’s Lincoln meeting.
Over in Ireland, there’s Listed action on the card at Limerick in the form of the bumper (5.15pm), won last year by The Yellow Clay, who has since finished 6th in the Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival. Naas also opens its Flat season with Listed action on their card (4.20pm).
