Clive Brittain can win the battle of the in-form trainers at Newbury tonight. His Pegnitz looks best in the Newbury Town Millennium Plate Conditions Stakes.
Last year's Gordon Stakes winner Compton Ace is sure to be a popular choice for this mile-and-a-quarter contest, particularly as his trainer, Gerard Butler, has been firing in the winners of late.
But that four-year-old looks to need at least a mile and a half to be fully effective, if not further.
And his handler is in no better form than Brittain, who has won the Irish 1,000 Guineas with Crimplene and the Zetland Gold Cup with Nobelist in recent days.
Given the good health of his stable companions, Pegnitz can reasonably be expected to run to his best, which will make him hard to beat judged on the smart performances he put up when a close second in this race and a Listed event over the same course and distance last year.
Many can be given chances in the Tote Bookmakers Stakes, a wide-open 16-runner six-furlong handicap. Marginal preference in this "Showcase Handicap" is for The Gay Fox, for whom John Reid is an eye-catching jockey booking.
Darryll Holland will miss the Derby meeting at Epsom after being suspended for 17 days under the "totting-up" procedure by the Jockey Club disciplinary committee.
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