NEWCASTLE'S Northumberland Plate meeting kicks off with an excellent card, including the ten-furlong Hoppings Stakes, a listed race for Fillies and Mares

Since our region is currently bereft of any top-class female stayers, the £30,000 event seems certain to end up in the lap of a southern yard with the likes of Willie Jarvis holding a strong hand via La Persiana (3.50).

The Newmarket-trained raider ran a magnificent race in defeat when finishing a close second to Aidan O'Brien's hotpot All Too Beautiful at York in May.

A reproduction of that level of form would make her a serious contender, with Summitville and Denis Coakley's Mocca likely to pose the most potent threats to her supremacy judged on recently available evidence.

For the preceding Seaton Delaval Trophy Handicap, ten-to-follow pick, Another Bottle (3.20), deserves another shot after failing to spark in Redcar's Zetland Gold Cup.

Tadcaster handler Tom Tate has opted to drop his four-year-old back in trip to a mile, even though Another Bottle prevailed over a mile-and-a-quarter on his Ripon reappearance.

Clearly no one knows the horse better than Tom, who rates the selection "as the fastest I've trained", a ringing endorsement from one of the quiet men of the sport, who is not given to over exaggeration.

Supporters of Greenwich Meantime (2.50) have taken a terrible pasting during the past couple of months, as Lynda Ramsden's inmate has three times in a row failed to justify favouritism.

It's going to take a massive show of faith to launch a last-ditch attempt to retrieve losses by siding with the five-year-old for the TSG Syscap Handicap but I believe those brave enough to give Greenwich Meantime one more chance will be rewarded.

The fixture planners have obviously lost the plot by staging Newcastle and Thirsk in direct opposition, given the relative proximity of the two courses.

As far as the action goes, Mary Gray (4.00) rates the best bet at Thirsk by some considerable margin.

Mark Johnston's daughter of Mujahid went into several notebooks by recording a career-topping performance to fill fifth spot on her Beverley comeback. She's also a big, strapping individual, blessed with the scope for substantial improvement as a result of now being stepped up to 12 furlongs.

At Salisbury, Inchpast (4.10) makes stacks of appeal in the H S Lester Memorial Handicap.

I think the Official Handicapper has made a gaffe by only putting Inchpast up 5lbs for an eye-catching Sandown success. Careful analysis of his latest win shows that the gelding was going away at the finish, rather than coming to the end of his tether.

Inchpast might easily have doubled or tripled his winning distance of a length-and-three-quarters had rider Richard Hills asked him to quicken at the head of the home straight, instead of leaving his effort until much later.

* Anak Pekan will by-pass Saturday's John Smith's Northumberland Plate due to the likelihood of fast ground at Newcastle.

Trainer Michael Jarvis had hoped to run the dual Chester Cup winner in the two-mile feature as there are few opportunities for him.

The five-year-old was due to carry top weight but Jarvis will now go back to the drawing board to try to find a race.

He said: ''While the ground is this quick he won't be going anywhere. The problem is that he has a rating of well over 100, like half a dozen in my stable, and it's a question of what do you do?"

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