Jef­fery Ross

Roug­i­ni is ide­al­ly suit­ed by con­di­tions of the Maid­en Auc­tion Stakes over five fur­longs at Red­car to­day. Weights are de­ter­mined by year­ling pur­chase prices. This fil­ly was cheap! As a con­se­quence, Mrs Karl Burke's charge is among 'bot­tom-weights' and her built up time-hand­i­cap mark puts Roug­i­ni clear of sev­en ri­vals. First thought is to en­gage in an each-way dou­ble with three places on of­fer. As you know, this of­ten isn't the case ul­ti­mate­ly. Book­ies strive to get a non-run­ner (and pay well!) to re­duce the num­ber of places. With thou­sands of bet­ting shops in­volved, such de­vi­ous­ness saves the book­mak­ing in­dus­try for­tunes and con­tin­ues to be one of the most vex­ing top­ics for place-play­ing pun­ters.

Con­sis­ten­cy usu­al­ly brings re­ward and that's why Roug­i­ni is un­op­pos­able in a quest to go one bet­ter. I'll bet shes does!. Sec­ond leg is James Fan­shawe-trained Llewellyn, one of ten de­clra­tions for the Maid­en Stakes over six fur­longs; should be placed by de­fault. Fan­shawe wouldn't car­ry on, if it meant deal­ing with such thor­ough­breds con­stant­ly and doubt­less, he'll be glad to get rid at the forth­com­ing New­mar­ket sales. In the mean­time, Llewellyn will be worth a lot more if go­ing in­to that ring as a win­ner. Re­al­is­ti­cal­ly, this is 'last chance sa­loon' and Llewellyn is dropped back in trip. Pre­sum­ably, Steve Dono­hue will force the pace and sort out the wheat from the chaff which, in­ci­den­tal­ly, in­cludes once-raced sta­ble-com­pan­ion, Vi­o­let's Girl, mount of cham­pi­onship-chas­ing Sil­vestre de Souza. In­trigu­ing, eh?

Frankie Det­tori is back aboard Pim­per­nel for the £25000 list­ed Dick Poole Fil­lies' Stakes over six fur­longs at Sal­is­bury, fol­low­ing suc­cess in a New­mar­ket nurs­ery ear­li­er this month un­der Kieren Fal­lon.

Judged on that lat­est ef­fort, Pim­per­nel will be good enough. Nurs­eries are ide­al for ex­pe­ri­ence and sharp­en­ing up two-year-olds as ed­u­ca­tion. Clas­sic prospects would of­ten con­test two-year-old hand­i­caps in the old­en days. How times have changed, not for the bet­ter, un­for­tu­nate­ly!

SE­LEC­TIONS

RACE 5 (#6) ROUG­I­NI (e.w.)

RACE 7 (#2) LORD OF THE SHAD­OWS

RACE 15 (#9) PIM­PER­NEL (nap)

RACE 17 (#1) LLEWELLYN (e.w.)