Carlisle hosts Flat racing on two consecutive days this week with the first arriving today with a competitive seven-race card on offer. 

The meeting gets underway at 5.55pm with an amateur jockeys’ handicap over the five furlong distance and will round off three hours later at 8.55pm with an eight-runner handicap in class six. 

The opener (5.55pm) sees a decent field of 11 head to the stalls for the five furlong dash in class five and Burj Malinka is the pick on form, scoring at Thirsk last month before finishing a decent fourth of nine in at Beverley a fortnight ago.

Hamilton winner Giselles Izzy can provide the main threat arriving off that win 25 days ago, posting a career-best in the process. 

Kiss Me My Love and Larchill Lass look the two main players in race two of the Carlisle card (6.25pm) as eight runners will take on the five furlong maiden fillies’ stakes in class four. Kiss Me My Love, trained by Charlie Johnston, arrives off the back of a second in a Hamilton contest on May 17 while Larchill Last has hit the frame twice in two starts, both at Beverley and is stepping down in class here. 

Race three (6.55pm) should go the way of It Ain’t Two, who got off the mark for trainer Hugo Palmer at Newmarket on debut before a bad draw saw her hampered in a Listed contest at York last time out but wasn’t beaten far so looks hard to beat at Carlisle. 

The fourth race on the card (7.25pm) sees ten runners head to the stalls for the 1m1f handicap in class six for three-year-old’s. Blufferonthebus looks to be the main play in this one, a winner at Carlisle last time out and is stepping up in trip after looking as if he can handle the further distance when scoring at this track. 

Race five (7.55pm) is a nine-runner novice stakes in class five, once again over the 1m1f trip around Carlise. Preference in this one is for Galyx, a winner at Windsor on May 6 for trainer Jack Channon. The chief threat comes from the Andrew Balding-trained Haya, second at Windsor on the same card as his main rival in this race. 

The penultimate race on the card (8.25pm) is the class six handicap over the six furlong distance, with seven runners set to go into the starting stalls. Kode Secret, second when last seen at Redcar, is expected to be right up there among the frontrunners once again while Mambha was another second on the same card and the duo are likely to fight it out here, with preference for the former despite carrying a penalty. 

Finally, Thursday’s card comes to a close with an eight-runner handicap in class six (8.55pm) and Vampire Slayer is taken to go one better, having split a pair of subsequent winners when last seen at Catterick and is very well-treated by the handicapper, having been raised only 1lb in the weights for that second-place finish. 

Carlisle selections - Thursday (via Betway)

5.55 - Burj Malinka

6.25 - Kiss Me My Love

6.55 - It Ain’t Two

7.25 - Blufferonthebus

7.55 - Galyx

8.25 - Kode Secret

8.55 - Vampire Slayer