RACING NORTH ten-to-follow pick Abbajabba (8.00) has conditions to suit at rain-soaked Hamilton this evening.

The recent deluge has doused the Scottish track where for sure it's going to be a night for mudlarks such as Abbajabba, who is only truly happy when he can feel his hooves sink sumptuously into the ground below.

Trainer Chris Fairhurst knows his charge is not half as effective on a fast surface, so he has been patient and given the selection a 114-day mid-summer holiday until the heavens opened over the past few days encouraging the Middleham handler to re-enter the fray.

Abbajabba has also slipped nicely down ratings allowing him to qualify for the 0-75 Da Luciano Stakes, presenting the eight-year-old sprinter with by far and away his best opportunity to end a dire losing sequence which stretches back to the 2001 season.

Much earlier in the day, Vicars Destiny (3.40) is fancied to get her revenge on Clarinch Claymore in the Charles Elsey Memorial Trophy at Beverley.

When the pair clashed over course and distance in July the latter held an advantage of just over a length when the pair crossed the finishing line in first and fourth places. Taking into account young Andrew Webb's 7lb apprentices' allowance aboard Vicars Destiny, the mare is now significantly better off at weights and is expected to crush Clarinch Claymore's bid to complete a double.

In the preceding toteplacepot Handicap, Dispol Katie (3.10) attempts to retrieve losses incurred when she was a heavily backed beaten favourite at Hamilton last time out.

David Barron's filly could never land a blow at the leaders on that occasion, however she'll be far better suited by today's uphill track, an unusual topographical feature that is almost certain to play to her strengths.

Salisbury stages a cracking Listed Fillies' Stakes in which Snow Goose (4.00) is fancied to appreciate the step up to ten furlongs.

John Dunlop's classy three-year-old has been toiling in vain over one mile on four outings to date this term, reaching the frame on her latest three starts without ever quite looking like she was going to fill the all-important number one spot.

But that situation could be all-change in the Upavon Stakes, a £45,000 affair that despite attracting a strong field does not dent my confidence one jot as far as the prospects of Snow Goose is concerned.

Snow Goose has been extremely unfortunate in having run up against a couple of very smart cookies of late notably Coy and Celtic Heroine at Ascot, both of whom are pattern class performers.

With nothing of the calibre of those two opponents in the line-up, Dunlop's raider appears poised to add to her juvenile haul of three wins during a hugely lucrative 2003 juvenile campaign.

* Velvet Waters provided followers of Janus (Colin Woods) with a money-spinning 5-1 winning nap at Bath yesterday.

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