Redcar and Salisbury

Another quiet day, with flat racing this afternoon at Redcar and Salisbury, and this evening at Chester and Southwell (N.H.); no Irish racing today. There are mainly large fields and at Redcar the main feature is the class 3 handicap over the straight mile at 17.30 CET with 9 runners, just about the smallest field of the day. This looks quite open, although Godolphin´s Gold Sovereign (Saeed bin Suroor/ Ted Durcan) could well be a blot on the handicap, despite carrying top-weight. He has only ever run twice and is possibly much better than this grade. The front-runners Zero Tolerance (David Barron/ Neil Brown) and Ansells Prode (Brian Smart/ Tom Eaves) are both in good form and should ensure that it is a truly run race. At Salisbury, the 10 furlong fillies handicap at 17.15 is the best race. Top-weight Atomic Winner (Alan King/ Dane O´Neill) is the only older filly in the field, the other 12 are all 3yo´s. She has a chance, especially in viw of her trainer´s excellent strike rate on the flat, but it is not certain that she can concede weight to John Dunlop´´s handicap debutante Star of Gibraltar (Eddie Ahern) or Henry Cecil´s Wimnter Bloom (Jimmy Fortune); however the much improved Storyland (William Haggas/ Kerrin McEvoy), winner of both her starts this year, looks the most likely winner.