ELEVEN-TIMES former champion jockey Pat Eddery has announced his intention to retire at the end of the season and therefore it is entirely possible that today will afford the final opportunity to see the fifty-one year-old Irishman in action at Newcastle.

Only the legendary Sir Gordon Richards has bettered Pat's phenomenal total of 4,582 winners and he hasn't stopped yet with several fancied mounts on the Tyneside card including Armagnac (2.15) in the Tote Scoop6 Northern Sprint Handicap.

Judged by the current well being of Armagnac's stable companions he must be in with a serious shout because trainer Mark Buckley has his team in scintillating form having hit the target at Thirsk on Thursday, and again at Wolverhampton yesterday courtesy of High Esteem.

Further encouragement can be gleaned from the fact Buckley's five-year-old finished a close third in the contest 12 months ago, not to mention the fact he was extremely impressive when cutting a big field down to size at Haydock the time before last.

In the preceding Group 3 Kronenburg Stakes Eddery's fans also have good reason to be confident given the presence of Vision Of Night (1.40).

John Dunlop, the Arundel-based handler who has provided Pat with so many of his career highlights, is responsible for Vision Of Night, successful at Yarmouth earlier this month when upsetting the red-hot odds-on favourite, Bonus.

As usual a few monster gambles came unstuck at Royal Ascot, including the mountain of cash which came for Camberley (4.25) in the Buckingham Palace Stakes.

It was a curious defeat as Paul Cole's dashing six-year-old appeared to hold all of the aces entering the final furlong under a super-confident ride from Richard Hughes.

Sadly for his backers when Hughes let off the handbrake Camberley went from cruise gear to capitulation in a matter of strides. Quite what went wrong is a mystery, none the less considering his astute trainer returns to the well so soon implies nothing much is amiss.

And as if to take extra insurance, Cole has taken the precaution of booking Kieren Fallon to do the steering aboard Camberley, a strong fancy for the seven furlong Handicap at 4.25.

Elsewhere there's a superb two-year-old six furlong Listed contest for fillies at Newmarket in which Enford Princess (2.35) has the speed to maintain her unbeaten record.

"She ranks up there in the premier division of my juveniles," remarked her trainer Richard Hannon after she had convincingly accounted for a more-than-useful field at Windsor in May.

In the later Letherby And Christopher Handicap Stormont (3.40) has been found an ideal avenue to get off the mark for the season.

Hugh Collingridge's three-year-old has had the misfortune to twice come up against the vastly improved Dazzling Bay on his last two outings. Fortunately the latter is now being aimed at Pattern class events and without that particular thorn in his side Stormont should not be far away in the £14,000 affair.

Richard Fahey is making hay while the sun shines with Chester-bound Sir Sandrowitch (4.00), who has already won twice this week, firstly at Beverley on Monday and then 48 hours ago at Thirsk on Thursday.

It's so often the case that horses reach the top of their game at exactly the same time of year and precisely 12 months ago to the day Sir Sandrovitch took the Chester Racecourse Conferences Handicap.

There's certainly no flies on Fahey and he's cleverly had his seven-year-old entered up all over the place this week to ensure Sir Sandrovitch is able to take full advantage of his currennt purple patch.

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