EVERYBODY LOVES A WINNING STORY

Winning Story can add another feather to his cap by landing a first Pattern-race success in the Boodles Diamond Ormonde Stakes, the feature event on the final day of the May Festival at Chester tomorrow.

The four-year-old will be taking a bit of a leap in class for Saeed bin Suroor as he lines up in this Group Three affair, but given his current mark of 108, options are really quite limited.

However, Winning Story has earned every bit of that fine perch through a fantastic winter on the allweather which culminated in victory on Finals Day at Lingfield last month.

Winner of a Newmarket maiden last spring, Winning Story was viewed as a possible Derby candidate but a heavy defeat in the Lingfield trial this time last year showed he was some way below the required standard and he did not actually reappear again until November.

Gelded in the interim, Winning Story unshipped his rider on his first outing but stepped up substantially on that effort subsequently, to win a fast-track qualifier at Newcastle and finish second in another such event at Chelmsford.

Stablemate Natural Scenery was much better fancied for the final of the staying division of the AllWeather Championships that month, but Winning Story really excelled in cheekpieces, making the most of a strong gallop to win in fine style.

Dropping back to a mile and five furlongs here may not be totally ideal, but he does not lack for a bit of pace and he can make his stamina tell in the finish.

Mirage Dancer is the latest son of Frankel to go under the Classic microscope as he lines up in the Homeserve Dee Stakes.

His trainer Sir Michael Stoute used this Listed heat as a prep for subsequent Epsom hero Kris King back in 2003 and while Mirage Dancer has a way to go before hitting those kind of heights, he is certainly bred to be making his mark at this level at least.