Bateel may just have the edge

This is one of those Saturdays when it is difficult to know where to look first. Whilst there are betting opportunities around, caution is advised, particularly at Haydock and York, where the cards look very tricky indeed.

It is unusual for Haydock to ride on the fact side but the going overnight was forecast as good to firm. If there is no rain, I imagine Michael Dods will take Mecca’s Angel out of the Group 2 Temple Stakes; it’s a long season, she needs to get her toe in and there are plenty of other opportunities leading all the way to the Abbaye in October, due to be run at Chantilly this year.

If she is an absentee today the most solid alternative is Muthmir, the choice of Paul Hanagan, though I still have a sneaking regard for Steps, who has graduated from the ranks of handicappers and may have a big race in him.

I shall be at Goodwood, where there is an almost impossibly difficult seven-furlong handicap. Amanda Perrett did not want to run Zhui Feng in the 2000 Guineas but he showed up well for a long way. He is drawn in the middle and will need luck in running but Ian Fleming should have every chance from stall one as he bids for a hat-trick. One thing we’ve learned this season is that Godolphin can bring horses back successfully following a long absence and STRONG CHALLENGE may not be far away from his single figure box.

BATEEL may just have the edge over Mount Logan where the Listed Tapster Stakes is concerned and DECORATED KNIGHT comes from Roger Charlton’s in-form stable in the opener over ten furlongs, another Listed affair. Jimmy Quinn seems to have struck up a successful partnership with the game mare ELUSIVE ELLEN in the veterans’ sprint later on and she is not weighted out of it.

Ian