Iron Mountain has the steel

Iron Mountain can continue his successful tour of Britain's seaside towns by scoring at Folkestone today. The gelding, a winner at Yarmouth and Brighton in the summer, has everything in his favour in the 49's Handicap at the Kent coastal track.

He is certainly in top form at present, having followed unlucky recent defeats at Newmarket and York with a clear-cut victory at Leicester last week. The threeyear-old remains favourably treated at the weights, under just a 6lb penalty for that authoritative success at Leicester.

And conditions will be ideal today for Iron Mountain, as the soft ground and likely strong pace will bring his stamina fully into play over this gruelling nine-and-a-half-furlong course.

Rouge Etoile will also benefit from the emphasis on stayingpower in the Levy Board Median Auction Maiden Stakes. She finished best of all when third from an unfavourable draw in a big field at Lingfield on her debut early this month, and will have come on considerably for the experience.

Aoife should also step on a promising first-time-out effort to land the Ranworth Maiden Stakes at Yarmouth. She shaped very well when runner-up to Rising Chorus in a similar event at Redcar last month, running on strongly in the final furlong.

An initial aversion to starting stalls - which forced her withdrawal at Nottingham a fortnight ago - is sure to have been worked on and the filly looks to have been found a good chance to gain her first win.

The Mautby Conditions Stakes sees a fascinating clash between last-time-out winners Hidden Magic, Emma Peel, Georgette and Voracious.

Each of the four is a very promising two-year-old and it is without a great deal of confidence that the scopey John Gosden-trained Georgette is chosen to follow up her recent Newmarket maiden victory.

The clash of high-class staying hurdlers Karshi and Ocean Hawk in the Booker Foodservice Duchy of Cornwall Challenge Cup Novices' Chase is the highlight at Exeter.

Ocean Hawk won over fences on this course a fortnight ago but must carry a 5lb penalty as a result, which could well tip the scales in favour of Karshi who may be the better suited by this two-and-three-quarter-mile trip.