Musselburgh Friday 26th March

The say ‘money talks’, and given the paucity of prize money in some areas of the racing world, when the opportunity to run for a winners’ cheque of £18,000+ with a jumps horse rated only just into three figures, it quite rightly piques interest.

This weekend’s three day ‘Go North’ festival of racing across Musselburgh, Kelso and Carlisle is a feast of well-funded races for the middle ground of the racing population. One imagines that these races have long been circled in red highlighter on the schedules of many of this weekend’s runners.

The ‘Northern Lights Juvenile Hurdle Series Final’ at 2.30 is an interesting collection of, for the most part, ex-flat horses. It is the Mick Easterby-trained En Couleur that most catches the eye, and the extra prize money definitely won’t have escaped the attention of the great man. Nor will it have eluded the thoughts of Keith Dalgleish, and he throws three darts at the board – perhaps the most interesting is Feldspar at a double figure price, after he had excuses for a below par run at Kelso last time. But the top of the market, featuring Magna Moralia and Breguet Boy also looks strong, so I’m going to dodge the race from a betting perspective.

A much more tempting betting opportunity comes in the ‘Northern Lights Two Mile Series Final’ at 3.05, where Sky Bet are offering a whopping 5 places for each-way bets. The Lucinda Russell-trained Diamond State strongly has the look of a horse whose campaign has been centred around peaking for this race off a workable handicap mark – at 7/1 each-way with Sky Bet, he is a cracking bet.

Owned by local Edinburgh businessman Gerry McGladery, Diamond State has plied his trade over hurdles exclusively at the Lothian track, with a couple of eye-catching runs in novice hurdles followed by two solid and ‘suggesting-of-imminent-progress’ runs in handicap company.

Indeed, he would have surely won last time but for getting the last all wrong, and pilot Derek Fox did well to retain the partnership. Stephen Mulqueen gets the leg up this time, and has a decent chance of scooping his share of the £18,768 first prize, while also rewarding backers of Diamond State at 7/1 each-way with Sky Bet.