'I'm not counting any chickens' - Chapman cautious ahead of penultimate meeting

Matt Chapman has lauded the flexibility of his London and the South team trainers for accommodating a jockey reshuffle at the Racing League's penultimate meeting at Southwell on Thursday evening.

London and the South will be without the services of the series' leading jockey Sean Levey and Marco Ghiani, who was stood down at Brighton on Monday and Leicester on Tuesday after being deemed medically unfit by the BHA.

Levey helped Chapman's team extend their lead over the Jamie Osborne-led Wales and the West at Windsor last week when striking on Sanitiser, but is required by Richard Hannon to ride the Amo Racing-owned filly Magical Sunset in Doncaster's Weatherbys Scientific £300,000 2-Y-O Stakes on Thursday.

Chapman said: "It's been a very, very hard week for London and the South with Marco Ghiani not able to ride at the moment and Sean Levey, who was expecting to go to Southwell but had a super-late switch to Doncaster on Thursday. That very much threw our plans up in the air because I had a number of trainers who'd declared on the basis that Ghiani and Sean were riding.

"I can't thank all those trainers enough because at the time of speaking, all of the horses who were due to run are still running. Charlie Hills, Ollie Cole and David Menuisier have been incredibly helpful because they didn't necessarily end up with the riders that they thought they were going to get."

Spearheading London and the South's attack at Southwell will be last week's winner Sanitiser (6.15), who will this time be partnered by Louis Steward under a penalty. Daniel Muscutt has a strong book of rides with Carausius (5.45), Street Kid (7.15), Tommy De Vito (7.45) and Equality (8.45) all leading the market in their respective £50,000 handicaps for Chapman's team.

However, despite what the early betting may suggest, Chapman is exercising some degree of caution. "The racing looks massively competitive, probably the most competitive fixture we've had so far. London and the South have one or two quite good chances, but I think what everyone has learnt from the league is that when you think you are going to do really well, you don't do quite as well, and when you least expect it, something turns up.

"For instance, after Windsor I think Jamie Osborne strongly expected to be in the lead and obviously it was a fantastic night for London and the South so I'm not counting any chickens at all at this stage. There are still two meetings to go and most people still have a joker to play for double points and it could all change rapidly."

Osborne's team had only trailed London and the South by a point before last week, but now the gap stands at 48 points, although if Galiac can make it third time lucky in the Racing League (6.45) after seconds at Doncaster and Newcastle, that gap could close significantly.

The trainer's daughter Saffie has just the one ride on Milltown Star (6.45), which could open the door for David Allan to close the gap in the leading jockey standings.

Allan lies third in the standings and has four rides for team Yorkshire, although Give It Some Teddy (6.45), Barney's Bay (7.15), Ava Go Joe (7.45) and Showalong (8.45) are all less fancied in betting than London and the South and Wales and the West representatives, with Chapman unable to resist a dig at Osborne.

The ITV Racing presenter added of the camaraderie displayed by his trainers and jockeys: "We are a team, we're all in this together. Like everyone else we all want to win, but we want to win as a team, not just for individual glory, and that's something I think one or two of the other teams can learn from, particularly the people who carry the red colours."

Racing League standings after week four

Racing League leading jockey standings after week four

Racing League round five: card and betting

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