The Vaal stages a nine-race meeting on the outside track tomorrow and the exotics will be popular bets considering the Pick 6 is made up of six competitive handicaps and dividends are likely to be healthy.

The highest rated race on the card is the seventh, a MR 80 Handicap over 1600m.

Pilou is the one to beat. He only just failed over this trip at Turffontein last time out despite spreading a shoe. He is only 0,5kg better off with Tommy Waterdevil for a narrow beating. However, by trends he is drawn on the right side in barrier seven in a nine-horse field. He won his maiden over course and distance by six lengths and is reunited with S’Manga Khumalo, who has ridden him in both of his wins. Pilou might have needed that last run slightly, it being his season’s reappearance, and the national champion yard of Sean Tarry yard should start kicking into top gear now with August being the traditional month for trainers to administer AHS vaccines.

Shogun

Well Connected started slowly over 1450m last time and showed a good turn of foot in the straight. However, he was unable to go through with his initially strong finish. His dam is by National Assembly and won once over 1200m. However, he is by Silvano and his second dam is an Oaks winner, so he could well be looking for this step up in trip. He was dropped two points to an 82 merit rating after that last run. That is still a tough merit rating for an early season three-year-old facing older horses, but being by Silvano he should be improving all the time. His draw of two might be a concern, although the draw bias has been unpredictable at the Vaal lately and the earlier races must be monitored to see if there is any bias on the day.

Tommy Waterdevil warrants consideration too as he has taken well to a mile in his last two starts, having been kept to sprints and 1400m events before that. He was running on well in that last race, but he did have the run of the race from a good draw and has to overcome a three-point merit rated raise, so this will be tougher and his draw of three might also be a concern. Shogun had to overcome a draw of nine in the aforementioned race and was only 0,85 lengths back at the line. He has remained on the same merit rating and now has Anthony Delpech up. However, he is drawn in barrier one so in his case the earlier races will also have to be monitored. If there is no draw bias he has a huge shout.

National Key is eight-years-old but is a capable sort and over a suitable course and distance is the dark horse jumping from the standside draw of nine and having been dropped to an attractive merit rating. Street Flyer is also hard to ignore with Strydom up as he went close the last time he ran in this class and he was off the identical 79 merit rating on that occasion.

Man’s Inn is an effective handy to front-running sort, who has also dropped to a competitive merit rating, so he also could pop up. The selection is Pilou to beat Well Connected with Shogun next best ahead of National Key and Tommy Waterdevil.

In the first leg of the PA over 1400m the touted Huyssteen should enjoy the step up in trip after a good debut over 1200m, where he was cut into. La Scala was unlucky last time and looks promising too. Both have low draws and the widely drawn Hyper Jet warrants consideration as he will relish the step up in trip.  The first-timer Think Of Magic is a R300,000 Philanthropist and is a half-brother to the dam of Triple Crown winner Louis The King, so the betting must be monitored. The other first-timer Savannah King is by Tiger Ridge out of an Elliodor dam who has produced three winners.

The first leg of the Pick 6 is a competitive maiden over 1400m but Witch Of The West makes most appeal as a rangy sort who will come on from her running on second over 1200m on debut. She does have a low draw but Anthony Delpech is up.

In the next leg the hard-knocking Celtic Lady has a good chance over an ideal 1000m trip and Varsity Princess is interesting with fist-time blinkers on from a standside draw as she has shown ability and is well bred.

The David Niewenhuizen pair Monarch Air and Flowing Gown make most appeal in the next over 1600m from high draws. Charter Jet is none too reliable but has the ability to win too.

In the penultimate leg of the Pick 6 Captain Chips runs over his ideal 1400m trip and could beat hat-trick-seeking Darkest Hour and Sail For Joy. However, it’s a competitive race and going wide could be the way to go.

The last leg is also competitive but Cedrus Lebani makes most appeal. He is a long-striding progressive sort who might enjoy the step up in trip and he is drawn on the right side under Gavin Lerena. Neuf De Pape should also go close, while Genesis could improve further from his gutsy debut win over this trip.

By David Thiselton

The good news for Western Cape trainers is that grass racecourse training gallops should be available to them again by October 20.

The trainers have been without any racecourse gallops whatsoever since about September 20 and the situation will also have an effect on breeders, who will be wanting to prepare their horses for the CTS Ready To Run Sale “breeze ups”, which are to take place on November 16 at Durbanville.

Durbanville race track

In a normal season racecourse gallops are catered for by Durbanville and on a quota basis at Kenilworth.

However, not only has Cape Town been locked in the worst drought for over a century, but the Durbanville racecourse has only recently been reopened after being relaid.

The Durbanville surface has been described as “beautiful” by trainers and although it is presently firm it is also nice and level so the horses have been pulling up well.

However, the powers that be do not want to risk putting too much pressure on the course before the grass has fully knitted.

The Kenilworth New Course was closed for scarification in September, so there have consequently been no racecourse grass training gallops available for Western Cape trainers since September 20.

However, the situation is under review by Phumelela in unison with Kenilworth Racing’s racecourse manager Dean Diedericks.

Phumelela’s Racing Executive Clyde Basel was optimistic that the quota gallop system would be re-opened at Kenilworth on October 20.

The quota system at Kenilworth allows each trainer a certain number of gallops with a view to being able to prepare graded class horses.

Basel was also confident gallops at Durbanville could start happening again on October 22, following the last race meeting there on October 18.

Basel believed Diedericks would be able to scarify Durbanville in stages, which would allow the gallops at Durbanville to be reopened on the aforementioned date.

Grass gallops are viewed as vital by some trainers in order to bring a horse to its peak for a race.

Meanwhile, Cape Thoroughbred Sales’ new CEO Wéhann Smith is in discussions with Diedericks and Kenilworth Racing regarding preparation opportunities for breeders before the CTS Ready To Run Sale, which is presented by Lanzerac Hotel and Spa.

Smith said that, as it stands, breeders or pre-trainers would not be allowed to prepare their horses at Durbanville as they have done in past years.

However, all 146 of the lots will be allowed to do their breeze up on the Durbanville course on November 16.

By David Thiselton

The Secret Is Out looks nailed on for the Supabets Conditions Plate at Durbanville tomorrow even though she has been off for over four months.

Good enough to win the Allan Robertson at two, she returned to the scene of that triumph in May to finish only two lengths behind Carry On Alice when third in the South African Fillies Sprint. On adjusted merit ratings she has 5.5kg in hand, she has had a gallop and Vaughan Marshall confirms that she should be fit enough to do herself justice.

MJ Byleveld’s mount was opened odds-on at 17-20 by World Sports Betting yesterday and 7-2 second favourite is Gold Image who has not raced since winning at Scottsville in the last week of July. “She hasn’t galloped but she is very quick and I think she will be competitive,” says Glen Kotzen.

The Secret Is Out (Candiese Marnewick)

Clifton Sunset (9-2) is the one closest to the favourite on ratings and this is her first race of the season. “She has been doing very well and she will be fit enough to run competitively,” says Brett Crawford who adds: “Obviously she will improve from whatever she does here.”

Red Light Girl (6-1) is the filly with the fitness advantage having taken a less than three-length fifth to last Saturday’s Diana winner Goodtime Gal in a Pinnacle at Kenilworth. That form reads well now and, while theoretically she has no chance with the favourite on the book, she could well go close. Scandola (8-1) is quite useful but she should not win.

The Marshall-Byleveld combination have a good chance of taking the first three races and in the first 17-10 favourite Red Eight is given marginal preference over What A Summer whose form reads marginally better but is badly drawn.

Red Eight, second in his last three, fought it out with Johnny Black in the final furlong of a decent maiden here ten days ago and a line through the winner suggests he can account for 13-2 chance Love Of India.

Star Of London’s promising debut four weeks ago would make her most appealing in the TAB Telebet Maiden were it not for her 17 draw. That looks the kiss of death and gives her considerably less chance than her 4-1 price would suggest.

Marshall’s 5-2 favourite Believethisbeauty, on the other hand, has a midfield draw and her experience may be enough to gain a reasonable start and get the better of 15-4 shot Spam Alert.

Race four is tricky and difficult to predict. Maybe Cape Extreme (28-10) will just be good enough although it is worth noting that the Ramsden-trained Sunset Clause (5-1) wears blinkers for the first time.

Hithimagainchuck should justify 14-10 favouritism in race seven and 35 minutes later Know The Ropes (3-1) can make it three in a row for Andre Nel.

By Michael Clower

Candice Bass-Robinson started the new feature season where she left off last season with a fine win in the Grade 3 Matchem Stakes over 1400m at Durbanville on Saturday with Our Mate Art and she also looks to have a possible Grade 1 WSB Fillies Guineas prospect in Magical Wonderland.

Bass-Robinson became the first lady trainer to win the Vodacom Durban July earlier this year and did it in her first season as a licensed trainer having taken over the reins from her legendary father Mike.

The latters greatest horse was Pocket Power and Our Mate Art carries the same blue, white and pink colours of the yard’s most loyal owner Marsh Shirtliff.

Our Mate Art is a rangy Australian-bred four-year-old gelding by the twice Grade 1-winning miler-to-1800m USA-bred Artie Schiller.

The big bay looked to always be in control of the race on Saturday once he had found cover in a handy position after a good start. He duly ran on resolutely to get the better of Table Bay, a classy sort who could well be at his best over that 1400m trip.

Bass-Robinson said, “It was the perfect race for him, a good distance and not quite against the top, top horses.”

She referred to the like of Legal Eagle and Marinaresco when qualifying the last statement.

Glen Kotzen, trainer of Gold Standard, might have had something to say about that, considering his Gold Standard finished in front of Marinaresco by 1,25 lengths in the Sun Met last year, albeit on 2kg better terms than weight for age.

Kotzen believed Gold Standard, who was having his first run since the Met, would have won on Saturday had he not been cramped between Table Bay and the rail. However, he was delighted by his 1,65 length fourth, especially in light of none of the Western Cape trainers having racecourse grass gallops available to them at present. Kotzen considers grass gallops as a vital aspect of his training program and said all of his horses had gone into Saturday’s meeting short of such a gallop. However, he was pleased that his big guns like Eyes Wide Open, Pack Leader, Too Phat To Fly, Princess Peach and Final Judgement had all pulled up well after running on a surface he described as “beautiful”.

Earlier, Bass-Robinson’s What A Winter filly Magical Wonderland turned it on in eye-catching fashion to easily win a strong Progress Plate for three-year-old fillies over 1200m.

On pedigree she will have a stamina doubt as she is by champion sprinter What A Winter and is a half-sister to the like of Grade 3-winning sprinter Magico.

However, Bass Robinson pointed out she had switched off nicely on Saturday at the back and possesses “a big turn of foot”. She believed she could get away with a mile against her own age group at this stage, just as her sire had when winning the Grade 2 Selangor Cup. However, she concluded by saying her Grade 1 WSB Fillies Guineas participation would be decided upon after her next intended run in the Grade 2 Choice Carriers Championships over 1400m at Kenilworth on October 28.

Meanwhile, Bass-Robinson’s July winner Marinaresco is in full training after enjoying a holiday at Soetendal Estate and would be taking the traditional top-horse route of Green Point Stakes, L’Ormarin’s Queen’s Plate and Sun Met.

Our Mate Art would also be considered for that route, although reading between the lines Bass-Robinson does not rate him quite as good as Marinaresco at this stage.

By David Thiselton

Photo: Candice Robinson (hamish NIVEN Photography)

Frankie Dettori said he was “absolutely made up” yesterday after learning superstar filly Enable will be given the chance to continue her dominance next season, as it was confirmed she would stay in training.

Frankie Dettori (Liesl King)

The John Gosden-trained five-time Group 1 winner, whose latest dazzling success came at Chantilly in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe this month, is already an extremely valuable broodmare prospect, but she will continue to race on and attempt to add more big races to her profile.

Dettori said: “I’m delighted with the news and very grateful to Prince Khalid. I went to see her this morning, gave her a few Polos and she said hello back.

“She is obviously a filly of a lifetime so I am absolutely made up that she stays in training. What she achieved this year is nothing but sensational and I look forward to riding her again next year.”

Among Enable’s potential targets is a return to France for the Arc. Teddy Grimthorpe, racing manager to owner Khalid Abdullah, said in a statement: “Her racing programme will be decided in the new year, but the defence of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe will be high in consideration.”

Grimthorpe added: “It was a straightforward decision. We wanted to give her time to settle down and get over the Arc. The prince gets input from everybody. John’s views are the most important to listen to but ultimately it was his call. Prince Khalid loves to see his horses race, especially the good ones.

“With all horses you need a sound and healthy year to reproduce anywhere near what she has done this year. The Arc will be in the mind and how she gets there and what she does has to be decided. She has to get through the winter and spring and then we will see.”

Enable (Liesl King)

Enable is 3-1 favourite to win the 2018 Arc from stablemate Cracksman who is 12-1 with Paddy Power and Coral.

Since finishing third at Newbury in April, Enable had won the Oaks, Irish Oaks, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and Yorkshire Oaks by a combined total of 20 lengths.

She surpassed those feats with a commanding two-and-a-half-length victory at Chantilly, where she became the first British-trained filly or mare ever to land the Arc, carrying her partner Frankie Dettori to a record-breaking fifth success.

The race returns to Longchamp next year, where Enable could have the chance to emulate another female, Treve, who completed back-to-back Arcs in 2013 and 2014.

– racingpost.com

Winter Series winner African Night Sky, who deliberately missed last Saturday’s Matchem in order to start his campaign later, may now begin at Kenilworth on 11 November.

Jonathan Snaith said: “We are looking at the 1 400m Pinnacle that day. He will then go on to the Green Point on 2 December before running in the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate and the Sun Met.

African Night Sky (Michael Price)

“He is doing amazingly well and I think he will be a better horse this season. He has matured and has more substance than he did when he won the Winter Series.”

Jockeys in South Africa will be glad that they operate in a much more relaxed environment than their counterparts in Mauritius.

Robert Khathi, who has just returned from his first stint on the island, said: “The Gambling Police have taken over racing and they raid jockeys’ houses. They came knocking at my door at 10.00pm one night when I was asleep. There were 15 of them and they searched the house.”

They didn’t find anything because there was nothing to find but Khathi was struck by the general air of suspicion. “If people see two jockeys together somewhere they often seem to think they are plotting something and they will take pictures which can end up in the papers.”

Despite the unsettling circumstances Khathi did well in Mauritius and finished up equal third on the log with 14 winners from 98 rides.

He said: “My trainer, Shirish Narang, is in only his second season and, while he had no big horses, he was doing well. I am riding freelance once more and I am looking for rides.”

By Michael Clower

Gold Standard showed he is very much in contention for the two top Kenilworth races when finishing an honourable and unlucky fourth in the World Sports Betting Matchem Stakes at a packed Durbanville on Saturday.

Off for eight months, giving weight to most of the field and a gallop short, he was as friendless as if his Facebook page had been deleted and he drifted from 12-10 to 9-2. Twice he was squeezed against the rails by second-placed Table Bay – and at one stage Richard Fourie had to stop riding – yet his mount was beaten less than two lengths into fourth.

Richard Fourie (Liesl King)

The stipes were most unhappy about the second incident and announced that they intend holding an inquiry while Fourie said: “Gold Standard is not a 1 400m horse but I would just about have won If I’d had a clear run. We are going to lock horns hard with Legal Eagle this season.”

A well-satisfied Glen Kotzen added: “It was a lovely run considering everything and it will be the Green Point next.”

Our Mate Art, the 10-1 winner, will renew rivalry in the December 2 mile Grade 2 on a kilo worse terms. He had the advantage of a recent run and Aldo Domeyer said afterwards that he always felt he was going to win.

Candice Bass-Robinson added: “He has improved since last season when he fractured a splint bone early on and when the Winter Derby was miles too far for him.”

Table Bay, who started favourite, was beaten less than half a length and Anton Marcus reported: “I thought he ran a great race.” So did the horse’s trainer but Joey Ramsden was less than happy about the training restrictions.

He said: “I was pleased with the horse and the way he settled – indeed I am not convinced that a mile will be beyond him – but I feel very let down and disappointed that I wasn’t allowed to give him a gallop.”

The jury is still out on whether La Favourari gets any further than sprint distances. Almost immediately after he was loaded Bernard Fayd’Herbe’s mount reared right up and smashed his way through the gate leaving his unfortunate rider hanging onto the uprights. The gelding had blood on his mouth when he galloped back into the parade ring and was promptly scratched.

Magical Wonderland will be tested over seven furlongs for the first time in the Choice Carriers on 28 October after stretching her unbeaten run to four with the performance of the day in the Fillies Progress Plate. The 8-1 chance, giving away lumps of weight and running for the first time since May, looked too far back to count early in the straight but, when Domeyer switched her into gear, she accelerated as if she was fitted with a supercharger.

Mrs Robinson said: “She is not very big but she is an athlete. I don’t know if she will stay the 1400m because she is a half-sister to Magico (second in the Computaform Sprint) and she is so quick.”

Gold Standard (Liesl King)

But Domeyer has no doubts, explaining: “What is in her favour is that she waits for you to tell her what to do, and you can pull her out without her losing momentum.”

Gimme Six, who also came from well back to take second in the Diana, will go for the top fillies races but she is the subject of a new training strategy.

Justin Snaith said: “I’m doing things differently this season in that I’m not revving the horses up for their early races. It means biting my lip but hopefully it will work.”

Goodtime Gal, backed down to 2-1 favouritism, benefitted from a typically bull-by-the-horns Marcus ride, striking for home early in the straight and Mike Robinson again has both the Majorca and the Paddock on her schedule.

Snaith took the male Progress Plate with the Grant van Niekerk-ridden Kasimir who suffered from sore shins last term – “I’m not going to run him a lot this season either but I would like to have him primed for the summer” – but the Brett Crawford-trained Umkhomazi and KZN Million winner Al Mariachi could be a better prospect. He was beaten less than three lengths into third despite conceding 6kg.

Many of the huge crowd seemed more interested in the braais than the racing but it was the largest Durbanville attendance in my near-12 years in the country. Some can remember the days when even a Wednesday meeting attracted 5 000 people but Snaith said: “It was the biggest I’ve seen here since I rode at the Cape Hunt amateur meeting 20 years ago.”

By Michael Clower

If you had been in a horse racing quiz, the race paused at the 50 m mark and asked who had won the third at Greyville yesterday, nine out of ten will have been confident of Alraune.

Hot favourite Lady Val required all the considerable experience of Anton Marcus to get her home ahead of the more experienced Alraune with Marcus praised as the “consummate professional” by James Goodman. Marcus nursed his mount for much of the race as the penny refused to drop, but once balanced up and only Alraune ahead of her, the former champion picked up his filly and asked for maximum.

Anton Marcus

Lady Val quickened in an instant and buried Alraune four jumps from the line to win going away.

“I think she’s very good,” said Goodman, “and she will get 10 furlongs and further. I ended up with her as a weanling and although we put her on various sales we did not get the price that we paid for her.”

“She may just be the best filly that I’ve trained,” said the veteran trainer. Big words after just a maiden victory, but it was a showing good enough to give substance to Goodman’s claim.

Lady Val was the seventh win of a successful weekend for Marcus but he does face an inquiry for his ride on Table Bay in the Matchem Stakes where he raised the ire of the stipendiary stewards for possibly keeping Gold Standard a little too tight on the fence.

Bidding for four straight yesterday aboard favourite World Dreamer, he got involved in a tangle with Brandon Lerena as he shifted across the bows of Edge Of Glory. The two jockeys went at it, whips waving in barely legal fashion, seemingly oblivious of apprentice Ashton Arries sneaking March Preview through on the pair’s inside.

Arries got his apprenticeship off to a rocky start after a couple of indiscretions threatened his riding career but he has put that behind him and made the most of his reprieve.

“I want to be champion apprentice and a champion jockey,” he said candidly earlier this year in his now customary deadpan delivery.

The legendary Michael Roberts should know what it takes and recognises a rising talent. “He has what it takes. He has the right attitude although he can be a little cheeky. But he studies form and often tells me things that I have not picked up. That’s was you need.”

Arries rode a double for Roberts on Friday and March Preview was an added bonus yesterday for another legend of the saddle, Garth Puller.

By Andrew Harrison

It took Louis Goosen a little time to set up his Ashburton stables after deciding to move from his Vaal yard, home for close on two decades, but not long to fathom the Ashburton training tracks. But he did heed advice in that regard. “Duncan (Howells) was a great help. His father and my father rode and trained together in PE and we grew up together. He was free with his advice and I appreciate that.”

It was obviously good advice from KZN’s Champion Trainer as Goosen saddled a treble on the Greyville poly on Sunday. “Should that have been four?” he pondered watching some smart work on the short track at Ashburton on Wednesday.

Louis Goosen

Goosen can add to that tally on the Greyville poly tonight where Bonnie Dawn and Haddington look the pick of his five runners on the evening.

Haddington comes back to half the distance of his last start when possibly finding the 2400m a touch out of his compass, but has excellent form over shorter and in spite of a coffin draw, he does stay further than a mile and Gunter Wrogemann, also riding as wave in KZN, is unlikely to hesitate in taking the strapping son of Ideal World to the front.

An aid in Haddington’s quest for a third win is that a number of the opposition are returning from a lay-off and likely to be short of a gallop, so his biggest threats likely to be Master Shogun and Sweet Refrain.

Bonnie Dawn can kick off the evening for Goosen when she steps out in the First Group Handicap where she shoulders top weight but takes a drop in class from her last Pinnacle Stakes event when four lengths off the smart Sommerlied.

The filly shows lots of speed and more importantly appears to have taken to the synthetic surface. She was not far off Grade 1 winning Guiness on her poly debut and more recently ran Gee Wizz to a head giving the runner-up 6kg. That was a showing good enough to see her home against some seasoned but aging opposition.

Champion trainer Sean Tarry has been ominously quiet in the first couple of month of the new season and the opposition can expect a tsunami of runners when the Highveld spring season kicks off starting at Turffontein tomorrow. But Tarry has a more than able lieutenant on Deshone Steyn who runs his KZN satellite yard and the filly Kahula can go one better in the Steelbank Merchants Handicap. It is a difficult Fillies and Mares Handicap where Kahula returns from a break but she is consistent and her pedigree suggests that the poly track will suit. With Anton Marcus in the saddle, she had a lot in her favour.

Top weight Leisure Trip has been a model of consistency since arriving from the Highveld but without success. He poly form is smart and with apprentice Serino Moodley given her 2.5kg relief she looks a threat to Kahula.

As does Fullfillyourdreams. Robbie Hill’s filly caused a major upset when landing the Bloodstock South Africa Million at Scottsville, beating winners and in the process shedding her maiden.

The field this evening is possibly a touch weaker but she does have to contend with a difficult draw which could prove her Achilles heel.

By Andrew Harrison

Gold Standard is the star attraction at Durbanville tomorrow but last season’s Sun Met fourth faces a stiff task in the World Sports Betting Matchem Stakes.

Richard Fourie’s mount has to overcome an eight-month absence but a bigger problem could be his limited preparation. “He has only had one gallop and it was a soft one,” says Glen Kotzen. “I had planned to give him a second but the gallops were closed. I’m just hoping his class can pull him through but there are some good sprinters in the field and they will make him go.”

Gold Standard (Liesl King)

He is the best horse in the race but at the 12-10 offered by the sponsors he looks much too short. Second favourite Table Bay has never really lived up to the expectations generated by his brilliant Cape Classic win – maybe the likes of me overestimated him – and his third in the Cape Guineas (over three lengths behind Gold Standard) was considered a disappointment at the time.

He just might come back to his best here. Certainly it would be no surprise to see Anton Marcus dictating things and kicking unassailably clear early in the straight. But at only 5-2 there is better value to be had elsewhere.

Probably not with 11-2 chance Copper Force, though. “His ten draw is not going to help. We will have to drop him out and come from the back,” says Justin Snaith. “It’s going to be a question of whether he can get there in time.”

La Favourari comes out the same as Table Bay on adjusted merit ratings and only two lengths behind Gold Standard. He has won his last four and Bernard Fayd’Herbe is a wily old fox who will have spent some time working out all his tactical options, particularly from pen nine. A slow start or a Copper Force-style drop back could be fatal but his real problem is that his mount is a sprinter.

Such horses are sometimes able to last home over this easy 1 400m. Can this one do so? “We are not sure,” answers Andre Nel. “But we are taking a chance because of the way the course is running at the moment.”

La Favourari (Liesl King)

At 20-1 he makes the most appeal of all. You could back him each way but, if his stamina runs out before the end, he will probably drop back out of the placings. A saver on 25-1 shot Silicone Valley might be a better option. Things didn’t go well for him last time – Piet Botha couldn’t get in – and, but for his recent drop in the ratings, he would come out the equal of Gold Standard at the weights.

Black Cat Black (Brett Crawford: “I will be disappointed if he is not in the first four”) and Our Mate Art have the considerable advantage of a good recent run and apparently it would be folly to dismiss 14-1 chance Always In Charge even though he has to give weight all round and has been off for eight months. “He had a gallop at Kenilworth about three weeks ago and he won’t need the run,” warns Vaughan Marshall who was in blistering form here on Wednesday.

Marcus’s mount Goodtime Gal makes a lot of appeal at 6-1 in the Diana after winning a sprint 18 days ago (Mike Robinson: “She has come on nicely and she will enjoy the trip”) but the vibes are even better about 8-10 hotpot Gimme Six.

“Some of the others are quite fit but our filly had a gallop at Kenilworth and it was very good,” says Snaith. “She went on her own but she was impressive.”

By Michael Clower