Bank on Ana in Chester feature

EMARAATY Ana is fancied to get back on the winning trail in MBNA Queensferry Stakes at Chester.

It is the belated first day of the season on the Roodee — and while there will not be the usual large crowd flocking from the city to the racecourse, there is a quality feature event for racing fans to tune in for.

Winner of the Gimcrack Stakes at York as a juvenile, Kevin Ryan’s Emaraaty Ana initially went down the Classic route as a three-year-old, but efforts in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket and the Irish equivalent exposed his stamina limitations.

There was a little more promise in his next performance, when fifth in a six-furlong Listed contest at Salisbury, and he made the most of a drop in class to land a conditions event at the same track in September, his final start of 2019.

Sprinting types tend to do significantly better as four-year-olds and there was plenty of encouragement to be taken from his first start of the current campaign when third in the Abernant Stakes at Newmarket a couple of months ago.

That form looks watertight with the benefit of hindsight, with the winner Oxted going on to prove himself a genuine top-notcher by following up in the July Cup.

Emaraaty Ana has enjoyed a nice break since that initial effort of the year and can land this Listed prize before stepping back up in grade in due course.

He usually races prominently so from stall seven Andrea Atzeni will have to have his wits about him.

Mystery Smiles is expected to maintain his unbeaten record in the British Stallion Studs EBF Conditions Stakes.

A son of the excellent first-season sire Mehmas — producer of the likes of Supremacy, Method and Muker — Mystery Smiles was the subject of plenty of positive vibes prior to his racecourse introduction at Windsor a couple of weeks ago.

Punters who got involved at odds-on might have been sweating following a tardy start, but Mystery Smiles ultimately came through and won with the minimum of fuss — suggesting he is bound for bigger and better things.

This six-furlong event looks the ideal stepping-stone to a stakes race later in the summer.

Susucaru is of significant interest on her handicap debut at Leicester.

The Starspangledbanner filly looked a winner waiting to happen after finishing second on her first two starts at Pontefract and Thirsk.

Susucaru lines up for the Bodie Hodges Foundation Nursery off an initial mark of 69, which looks more than workable.

Azzuri holds obvious claims in the Support The Arc Racing Club Handicap Chase at Southwell.