Key Largo's speed to tell in sprint

LOTTERY jackpot winner Doug Wood is a fitting sponsor of today's meeting at Folkestone. Picking winners at the year's final Flat fixture on turf looks just as tricky as selecting Camelot's six numbers, with fields mostly made up of horses jaded by a long season or warming up for an all-weather campaign.

The five-furlong Doug Wood Conditions Stakes is most unlikely to throw up a horse as good as last year's winner Pivotal who went on to prove a Group One sprinter. But it does appear to give Key Largo a good chance to resume winning ways.

The colt looked a useful prospect when he made a successful debut at Pontefract last month, in weakness in the betting and apparent lack of peak fitness to beat the experienced Phylida by a head. And he was far from disgraced in sixth over six furlongs at Nottingham last time, particularly as his stamina appeared to give way in the closing stages.

Over today's five-furlong trip he should prove too good for likely market rivals Salty Behaviour and Sous Le Nez who were both well held in a nursery at Doncaster last Friday.

William Bethell can beat the big battalions with Ubu Val in the Scots Guards Lucius Challenge Cup Handicap Chase at Carlisle. Holy Sting, Seven Towers and Parsons Boy represent leading jumps trainers Nigel Twiston-Davies, Mary Reveley and Gordon Richards here, with the last-named latter sure to be keen to win a race named after his 8 Grand National winner.

But Bethell, a small permit-holder based in Hull, looks to have the ammunition to take them on today as Ubu Val has the makings of a smart long-distance chaser.

A fairly useful point-to-pointer in his younger days, the gelding ran his rivals into the ground in novice chases at Folkestone and Windsor last season. And he also hinted at his potential with fine efforts behind high-class prospect Mr Mulligan in good company at Wetherby and Ascot.

He seemed unable to cope with the stiff Cheltenham fences in the National Hunt Chase on his final outing but that means he starts his second season chasing on a favourable mark in the handicap.

The tough front-runner came to hand quickly enough to score first time out last season and looks to have been found an ideal opportunity to repeat the feat this term.

Present `n Correct could be a value bet to bounce back to form in the opening Thorpe Vernon Limited Stakes (Div One) at Wolverhampton.