Waarif ready for UK win

– Waarif is worth following today as he makes just his second British start in the sunbets. co.uk Handicap at Newcastle.

Formerly trained by Kevin Prendergast in Ireland, Waarif notched up one all-weather win in three maiden starts last year before being absent from action for well over a year.

This son of Arcano was snapped up for just 23,000 guineas at the end of last season and was subsequently gelded when he joined David O'Meara's team.

He then took a fair chunk of time to get back to the track, eventually reappearing at Newcastle last month.

He turned in a fair performance to finish second, seeing that it came on the back of a 15-month absence.

Waarif missed an intended run at Chelmsford at the end of October, but clearly whatever troubled him that day was not too serious as he is back in action here.

The handicapper put him up 0.5kg for his return effort and Waarif looks capable of making his mark off that sort of rating.

Economic Crisis was beaten six lengths at Catterick on her latest start, but deserves a bit more credit for that run.

Alan Berry's charge hardly helped herself when she unshipped her rider in the preliminaries and perhaps the excitement of that mishap just told a bit as she got a bit left behind before making up ground in the finish.

Economic Crisis will be joining the 100 club in the 32Red. com Fillies' Handicap and while her return of 11 wins in 99 starts is hardly breath-taking, she certainly is capable of decent efforts on her day.

Shantou Rock can claim his second victory over fences in the Integral Novices' Chase at Warwick.

Dan Skelton's charge won three times and was second three times from eight starts over hurdles.

He fell on his final start of last season at Exeter, but showed no scars from that tumble when winning as he liked on his chasing bow at Newton Abbot last month.

While he was clearly a very useful hurdler, he looks like making up into an even better horse over the larger obstacles and a second victory will earn him a tilt at some lofty targets.

BEST BETS: Nap bet: Waarif in the 7.15pm at Newcastle; All To Come: Shantou Rock in the 1.50pm at Warwick and Waarif. –

London