Mirage should not be deserted by punters

Stoute’s charge looks good on final day of Chester’s May Festival

MIRAGE DANCER is the latest son of Frankel to go under the Classic microscope as he lines up in the Homeserve Dee Stakes, one of the feature events on the final day of Chester’s May Festival.

His trainer Sir Michael Stoute also had the option of next week’s Dante at York, so you can only assume he believes this race to be the better option on the way to bigger things in time.

EL HAYEM should also be on the mark for the Stoute team in the opening Crabbie’s Earl Grosvenor Handicap.

Having his first run since last July, El Hayem would be expected to make plenty of progress for the outing and his current mark of 90 gives Stoute a bit to work with in due course.

WINNING STORY can add another feather to his cap by landing a first Pattern-race success in the Boodles Diamond Ormonde Stakes.

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.

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 fasttrack qualifier at Newcastle and finish second in another such event at Chelmsford.

Meanwhile, ONE BIG SURPRISE looks worth following in the last race on the card at Lingfield. SELECTIONS:

CHESTER: 1.50 El Hayem, 2.25 Mirage Dancer, 3.00 Copper Knight, 3.35 WINNING STORY (NAP), 4.05 Cheerfilly, 4.35 Double Up, 5.50 Modernism.

LINGFIELD: 1.40 Kullu, 2.15 Janszoon, 2.45 One Minute, 3.20 Oh So Sassy, 3.55 Trick Of The Light, 4.25 Bringit, 4.55 Buxted Dream, 5.30 One Big Surprise. DOUBLE: Winning Story and Mirage Dancer.