Goring looks too sharp for rivals

● Four-year-old ready to build on promising Ayr run

Goring should not be discounted when he takes an intriguing descent in class at Salisbury.

The four-year-old hardly looks a handicap snip, but did enough at Ayr last time to warrant support in the Alford Investments Ltd Handicap.

Eve Johnson Houghton’s inmate won a better race than this at Windsor on 1 August, but rather struggled in two subsequent starts that month.

Buttheargumentthathewas now hamstrung by the assessor had to be tempered as he flashed home with purpose in a class two sprint handicap at the Western meeting. Goring really caught the eye inside the final furlong, eventually finishing fifth to Classic Seniority and only two and a quarter lengths away from the winner.

That performance failed to impress the handicapper, though, who has opted to relieve him of a pound.

The son of Areion is now just 3lb higher than when he looked so sharp at Windsor, while the reappointment of Tom Marquand is no bad thing, either.

Goring has won before with ease in the ground so the recent rainfall at the track would not have been greeted with too much dismay by his capable trainer.

Windshear has had a bit of a nightmare this year, but proverbial green shoots of recovery were spotted on his last spin at Doncaster.

Once rated 112 and fourth in the 2014 St Leger, those halcyon days now seem an awfully long time ago as he has not won since March 2015.

The five-year-old gelding, trained by Richard Hannon, did a great deal better at Doncaster’s St Leger meeting when he finished third in a solid handicap over an extended ten furlongs. Windshear was admittedly outclassed by Mount Logan when push came to shove, but that was a big improvement on previous efforts this year.

Hannon’s representative runs in the Weatherbys Hamilton Handicap off a mark of 93, so his chance is obvious – if that Doncaster run has instilled into him a greater sense of purpose.

First-time blinkers might do for Banish in the 32Red Handicap at Kempton.

The three-year-old gelding has a tendency to blow up once the traps rip open – as evidenced on his last four outings – but he is not devoid of ability. ● Yesterday’s meeting at Ayr was abandoned due to a waterlogged track.

Clerk of the course Emma Marley reported the track to be waterlogged following eight millimetres of rain over the preceding 24 hours.