CLASSY claimer David Allan has a gilt-edged opportunity to further advertise his talents aboard Pure Coincidence at Doncaster this afternoon.

The smart young apprentice jockey has been booked to partner Karl Burke's sprinter for the second time in the space of four days after the combination finished a close fifth at Catterick on Tuesday.

Pure Coincidence (3.00) didn't help his cause that day with a tardy start, but he was absolutely flying in the final 100 yards, suggesting an imminent return to form.

And for backers considering having a shilling or two on the selection, it's worth remembering he won in very similar soft ground over track and trip way back in March at the opening meeting of the season.

Burke's Spigot Lodge stable might also be in the money much earlier in the day via the top-weight, Soller Bay (1.00).

The four-year-old landed a shock 33-1 win at Newmarket last week under a strong drive from Neil Pollard.

Today's contest is confined to amateur riders and Pollard's place has been taken by the highly competent Carol Williams, bidding incidentally to clinch the Lady Amateur Jockeys' Championship.

Mark Johnston has found a couple of soft races for his only two runners on the card, Double Honour (2.00) and Simeon (4.00).

Double Honour, second to Persian Punch in the Goodwood Cup, is so massively favoured by the way the weights are framed in the Auker Rhodes Blue Parrott Stakes, he ought to collect without even breaking sweat.

And Simeon's task in the much later Mansfield Beers Conditions Stakes is similarly simple. In fact, the strapping son of former Derby and Arc de Triomphe hero, Lammtara, has frightened off most of the opposition with just two turning out to try and lower his colours.

If the biting north wind continues to blow it'll be a bit nippy high up on Hexham racecourse.

But the excellent standard of the jumping action should be enough to warm the cockles of the spectator's hearts, especially if Bold Action (12.50) gets us off to a winning start.

Admittedly Jim Turner's ten-year-old has not run for six months, but in my book he's well enough in at the weights to score, even if he's only 90 per cent straight.

Quantity rather than quality just about sums up the three-mile-and-one-furlong National Grid Maiden Chase.

Most of the field have had countless chances and spurned them all. In such circumstances it's normally wise to put youth before age and experience, which leads me to believe the former point-to-point winner and youngest horse in the field, Wills Perk (1.50), is the one to bet on.

Finally to Uttoxeter, a strangely undulating track which tends to derail the prospects of many fancied prospects.

Mary Reveley has no worries on that count with Let's Fly, who bolted up over course and distance in October. Despite a 4lb penalty, he has the scope to follow up prior to moving up considerably in grade.

Empire Gold (2.30), who passed through the hands of Lynda Ramsden and Andy Turnell, now finds himself in the capable care of Kim Bailey.

Bailey has been enjoying something of a renaissance this term, a trend hopefully all set to continue with Empire Gold in the Flint Bishop Conditional Jockeys' Handicap Hurdle