Jef­frey Ross

Richard Kingscote, sta­ble jock­ey to Cheshire-based Tom Das­combe, rides once-raced ju­ve­nile Pre­mier Steps in the five-run­ner Maid­en Stakes, over the min­i­mum trip at As­cot to­day. Is that sig­nif­i­cant? This ques­tion is posed be­cause sta­ble-com­pan­ion Brown Pan­ther, run­ner-up in the 2011 Don­cast­er St Leg­er, will (again!) be part­nered in the £70,000, group three Or­monde Stakes over four­teen fur­longs at Chester, by six-times cham­pi­on jock­ey, Kieren Fal­lon! That's the ul­ti­mate snub giv­en as­sur­ances by own­ers, An­drew Black and soc­cer-star Michael Owen that they were hap­py with Kingscote, bla, bla, bla. Ac­tions speak loud­er than words gen­tle­men, un­less of course, Kingscote was adamant he want­ed to be on Pre­mier Steps.

Brown Pan­ther faces four ri­ivals. One is Sir Michael Stoute-trained Sea Moon, a Beat Hol­low four-year-old, which was beat­en half a length by Brown Pan­ther on Town Moor and should have been sec­ond. Ex­pect plac­ings to be re­versed. As those jock­eys come back in to 'weigh in,' the five-run­ner 'aged' hand­i­cap at Ling­field will be about to start. Desert Strike will be hard to beat un­der ap­pren­tice Matthew Law­son, deputis­ing for Kieren Fal­l­lon! Chances are Kieren will lose out twice but that won't both­er the vet­er­an. A place per­cent­age on Brown Pan­ther will guar­an­tee bet­ter wages than vic­to­ry on Charles Hills' charge, a fast-fin­ish­ing sec­ond un­der Fal­lon, on Wolver­hamp­ton poly­track last week and ready to go one bet­ter. In fact, it's a penal­ty-kick, which Matthew will en­joy con­vert­ing.

Half an hour on and Mizwaaj makes strong ap­peal in the 14-run­ner di­vi­sion one of the Maid­en Stakes over sev­en fur­longs. What beats this Godol­phin-owned colt will win and I'll bet on Frankie Det­tori 'do­ing the biz!' Saeed Bin Suroor trains Mizwaaj but Mar­moon Al Za­rooni sad­dles Pe­riph­ery for 'the boys in blue,' in the sec­ond di­vi­sion. Frankie could well com­plete a dou­ble and, again, I'll bet he does. In fact both Godol­phin run­ners will com­prise my each-way dou­ble, quite apart from the dai­ly yan­kee.' Three of our se­lec­tions are on poly­track, the de­fin­i­tive rac­ing sur­face. Turf is bad, at present and Good­wood was called off due to wa­ter­log­ging. That's a rar­i­ty and I can't re­mem­ber that hap­pen­ing be­fore, in my rac­ing car­reer.

SE­LEC­TIONS

RACE 8 (#4) SEA MOON

RACE 9 (#3) DESERT STRIKE

RACE 12 (#5) MIZWAAJ

RACE 15 (#5) PE­RIPH­ERY