LET’S FLY TO PLATE PRIZE

Flymetothestars looks a rock-solid pick in the Stobart Rail Northumberland Plate at Newcastle tomorrow.

The race is now run on an artificial surface rather than grass, but that has not stopped the faithful flocking to the track for the ‘Pitmen’s Derby’ and nor has it diminished the competitive nature of the extended two-mile event.

There will be plenty hoping to fly to the stars if Sir Mark Prescott’s charge can do the business and there looks to be every chance. Lightly raced with just four career outings, he crucially seems to love the new track at Gosforth Park, winning his last two starts there.

The most recent of those came in May over the Plate trip and saw him account for the useful Endless Acres, who showed the form in an excellent light when second to Thomas Hobson at Royal Ascot last week.

The Prescott runner is open to any amount of improvement in these long-distance events and the Newmarket baronet is never too far away when he targets one at a race of this sort of nature.

Don’t Touch, the 2015 Ayr Gold Cup winner, gets the nod in the Betfred TV Chipchase Stakes. A return to six furlongs will suit.

Home Of The Brave, Hugo Palmer’s five-yearold, has his second run of the campaign and is taken to land the Betway Criterion Stakes at Newmarket.

Sir Michael Stoute’s Midterm has yet to live up to expectations, but the one-time leading Derby hope of 2016 can benefit from a drop in grade to take Listed honours in the Betway Fred Archer Stakes,, while Dance Diva can seal a hat-trick in the Listed Betway Empress Fillies’ Stakes.