THERE'S a very strong possibility that the handicapper has got his sums wrong in respect of Ripon-bound Guto (3.55).

The official abacus is, generally speaking, working overtime at this stage of the season, continuously number crunching as the BHB try to get a handle on the plethora of two-year-olds emerging from the woodwork.

Guto has been awarded a rating of 81 but, with only three public outings and precious little evidence upon which to assess him, it's still very possible that Kevin Ryan's raider is nicely in at the weights for the Uredale Nursery.

Two other factors to take into account are the gelding is already a course-and-distance scorer, proving he handles the undulating home straight, and Ryan's juveniles have been cleaning up all over the show, always a major positive in this type of contest.

For the £20,000 Cathedral City Handicap, Prince Samos (3.55) is well worth another try back up at ten furlongs.

It's easy to forgive the selection's latest Ayr defeat where Prince Samos was hooded in stalls. This is a regular procedure to stop the horse getting restless, however the normally reliable Franny Norton took his eye off the ball and was slow to remove the headgear as the stalls prepared to open.

Not unnaturally the pair were slow to leave the gates and could never recover the lost ground. Ryan Moore now takes over in the saddle and he's not going to make a similar muck-up, thus allowing Prince Samos to break on level terms, a position from which he's fancied to help maintain Richard Hannon's bid to become champion trainer.

I like Neville Bycroft's wheeze of whacking the blinkers on recent Thirsk one-mile winner Efidium (5.30) for the closing six-furlong Wensleydale Apprentice Handicap.

Efidium hasn't run over a sprint trip for many a moon but he's blessed with bags of pace and the application of blinds are sure to sharpen him up in the hands of Suzanne France, who gets on famously with the seven-year-old.

In Haydock's opener don't be put off backing Hiddensee (2.30), even though he ran like a drain on a recent visit to York.

Mark Johnston's bull of a colt simply couldn't cope with the rock-hard surface on the Knavesmire and is better judged on previous efforts at Leicester and Doncaster, when conditions were more like those he'll encounter this afternoon.

* Palace Episode is back in top form ahead of his step up to Group Two level in tomorrow's totesport.com Royal Lodge Stakes at Newmarket.

Kevin Ryan's colt had to miss his intended run in the Champagne Stakes at Doncaster earlier in the month after an unsatisfactory scope on the morning of the race.

The Hambleton Lodge handler reports Palace Episode to be well over that minor problem now and back in the kind of form that saw him win the Listed Acomb Stakes at York's Ebor meeting.

''He's in good form and I think he's improved a fair bit since York,'' said Ryan. ''He's a bigger, stronger horse now and he's progressing the right way.

''It was very testing ground at Doncaster and although he likes a bit of cut, I'm not sure he would have gone as deep as that.

''He just wasn't 100 per cent on the day of the race and I wasn't going to take any chances with him. He's done well since and I couldn't be happier with him.''

Palace Episode will be having just his third career start tomorrow and he will be trying the mile trip for the first time, as well as having a first try in Pattern company.

''It is another big step up for him but it was a jump at York and he won that quite decisively, so there's no reason why he shouldn't take his chance,'' said Ryan.

''We will see how he copes with the mile but there are a lot of horses with big reputations going there, so it will be an interesting race.''

Palace Episode is entered in both the Darley Dewhurst Stakes and Racing Post Trophy next month but Ryan added: ''We will see what happens on Sunday before we decide on any plans.'' Palace Episode will clash with well-touted colts City Of Troy and True Cause.

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