Dangerous Deacon to give rivals the Blues

With the promise of more to come over a slightly longer distance, the test in the Chamagne Stakes at 2.10 should prove right up his street.

However, courtesy of that Group Two success he has to give weight away to some promising sorts and Saamidd could be that something special to take his scalp.

A top worker at home, the son of Street Cry carried that reputation onto the racecourse with a seven-length annihilation of two fair yardsticks with the minimum of fuss. Normal improvement should put him right in the mix.

Walter's Dream is rightly worthy of respect after he improved yet again to land the Acomb Stakes at York.

If he continues to flourish under his master trainer he could prove to be a bigger danger to the selection than Approve.

The Portland cavalry charge at 2.45 looks a cracking renewal where the ground and therefore the draw will play an important part. So far this week they have come up the centre of the track, but if we do get a significant change in the ground then there could well be a bias to the higher drawn numbers.

For the purpose of this preview I shall be presuming that the ground has some give in it and as such I am pretty keen on both Deacon Blues (drawn 16) and Hogmaneigh (22).

The latter is well-weighted based on the form of his victory in this race a couple of years ago and Jim Goldie is among the shrewdest trainers of sprint handicappers around. He comes into the race fresh and is apparently in good form at home, while Kieren Fallon rides.

Frankie Dettori takes over the mount on Deacon Blues, a progressive three-year-old unlucky not to have won a nice prize this season. However, he has been far from disgraced on all his starts this year and remains feasibly well weighted on his best form.

In such a competitive event mention should also be made of the progressive Poet's Place, Tiddliwinks and the hugely interesting Signor Peltro, who came a fast-finishing third in the Great St Wilfrid and will be a dark horse if the ground comes up on the really testing side.

This year's St Leger (3.20) has been a real conundrum to me with Rewilding being the obvious focal point.

There is little doubt that he is a class animal. He was third in the Derby and a free-flowing winner of the Great Voltigeur, but I just wonder how much he is likely to find if he gets into a scrap.

He has looked at times as though he has an awkward head carriage and unless he gets everything to drop his own way as at York it will be interesting to see if he fancies a dog fight.

That's why I think Midas Touch remains the solid each-way call here at around the 7/1 marker.

Of all the runners in the final classic he has looked the most obvious contender to be suited by the extra distance and it was noticeable that he was losing no ground on Rewilding at the finish at York despite having been at the front end a lot earlier than his easy-travelling rival.

The form shown by both Dandino and Arctic Cosmos is a few pounds shy of those two leading protagonists and if the rains stay away then a bigger danger has to be Oaks' heroine Snow Fairy, who was far from disgraced behind Midday in the Yorkshire Oaks.