The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)

Trainer looks to have found easier task for seven-year-old at Newcastle

- ANITA CHAMBERS

Alan King enjoyed an exceptiona­l Royal Ascot and can keep the bandwagon rolling with another big-race success in the Betfair Northumber­land Plate at Newcastle.

The Barbury Castle trainer sent out three winners in Berkshire last week and has booked one of his Ascot-winning pilots in Hollie Doyle to team up with

RAINBOW DREAMER feature event.

Doyle was also on board for the sevenyear-old’s return at Gosforth Park earlier this month, when he ran a very respectabl­e fourth behind Nayef Road in the Group Three Sagaro Stakes.

The winner went on to prove best of the rest behind the exceptiona­l Stradivari­us in the Gold Cup, giving a very solid feel to Rainbow Dreamer’s five-length defeat over the same extended two miles he faces here.

He was very much up against it at the weights that day, so his effort is all the more meritoriou­s, and the fact he had been cutting a swathe through the allweather staying ranks previously adds further confidence to the selection for a yard which won this tough handicap last year.

This is theoretica­lly an easier task in today’s than Rainbow Dreamer faced last time, and while he has a fair bit of weight to contend with, he could still prove a cut above.

VIRGIN SNOW is bred to be something special as a daughter of Gleneagles out of the fantastic racemare Snow Fairy and she can start to really come of age in the Betfair Exchange Hoppings Fillies’ Stakes.

She was thereabout­s in two outings last year without winning, but soon righted that statistic with a convincing success on her return this term, admittedly only in handicap company.

However, the manner of her victory on stepping up to 10 furlongs was quite taking, and the conditions of this Group Three give her every chance of gaining that all-important black type.

JUDICIAL found just the now-retired Far Above too sharp on his seasonal bow

 ?? Picture: Shuttersto­ck ?? Rainbow Dreamer and Hollie Doyle.
Picture: Shuttersto­ck Rainbow Dreamer and Hollie Doyle.

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