Wales & The West maintain a wide margin lead in the Racing League standings after three fixtures and will be hoping to add more points at Newcastle on Thursday.

Wales & The West have 471 points compared to the second-placed team London & The South on 378 points.

"I would be very fearful that we are on northern territory now. Our home games are over and we are playing an away match here, although I think we have enough depth in the squad – while we might not increase our lead, we may not lose it either," said 

Wales & The West's team manager Jamie Osborne.

"I think I'm Puzzled in the nursery looks to be one of our better chances on the night. Billy Mill in the seven-furlong handicap and Hydration in the six-furlong race would look to have solid claims as well, but I think we have plenty of nice bullets to fire.

"We are pretty organised in terms of our plans for the following fixtures at Wolverhampton and Southwell. I think we have some good cards to play there and this week is all about holding on to a decent-sized lead. We showed last year on the final night that there can be big swings at a single meeting, but there is no doubt that we are in a healthy position."

Home side The North picked up the feature handicaps at both Chepstow and Windsor and will be looking for another strong week to increase their points haul of 319.

Team manager Mick Quinn said: "We are up on points compared to this stage last year and that bodes well because I always anticipated being stronger in the second half of the competition. We did well to get in to double figure runners for the three southern meetings and now have a full team for our home game this week.

"You never know what could happen but I do think Jamie's team looks unstoppable at the moment, although we did say that about Matt Chapman last year, didn't we?! Hopefully, we can climb a place or two on the leaderboard this week and then see how we go.

"We have been on a bit of a roll in the £100,000 handicaps, with Richard Fahey winning the last two, and I think we have a couple of nice chances again in Dakota Gold and Fine Wine. Dakota Gold is almost a household name given what he has done over the years and Fine Wine has an excellent record on the all-weather.

"The Horse Watchers like their runner Painters Palette in the 10-furlong handicap, while both of Richard's horses in the nursery, Beechwood Star and Classy Clarets, have run well at the track this year already."

Racing League standings 

Wales & The West                 471pts
London & The South              378pts
Ireland                                    350pts
The North                               319pts
The East                                259pts
Yorkshire                                196pts
Scotland                                 128pts