Bumper card for Perth’s Summer Carnival

Last year’s second and third, Caius Marcius and Mirsaale, clash again in the £30,000 Stone Of Destiny Handicap Hurdle on a bumper eight-race Summer Carnival card at Perth today.

Tickets for the annual meeting have sold out, with the racecourse gearing up to welcome the biggest crowd of the season.

The pair are among the six declared for the featured two-mile event which also includes Parthenius, High Expectations, Captain Felix and Politeness.

Nicky Richards, who trains Caius Marcius, said: “We’ve been running him in novice chases but this is a nice pot to aim at back over hurdles. He’s a summer type of horse who likes the better ground and he clearly loves Perth – he was second in this last year and won his only two races over hurdles at the track.”

Captain Felix is the first runner at Perth for Newmarket trainer James Eustace who is better known for his exploits on the flat. His long-distance raider was a recent fourth in a Listed hurdle at Market Rasen.

Perth Racecourse has been the scene for the last four runs of Politeness, and Rose Dobbin’s charge has won two of them, while Parthenius represents Dan and Harry Skelton – who are currently leading the way in the jumps trainers’ and jockeys’ championship tables.

High Expectations, a course and distance winner on his hurdles debut in 2014, is one of a stack of runners for Gordon Elliott who saddled six winners at Perth’s last two-day meeting.

Three-time champion jockey Richard Johnson has seven rides starting with Elliott’s recent course scorer Make My Heart Fly in the opening Supreme Recruitment Handicap (Division One).

Doors open at 11.30am and the first race is scheduled for 1.25pm, with the last at 5.25pm.

Richard Johnson has seven rides at Perth today.