BARRING injury Jamie Spencer appears more or less home and hosed in the jockey's championship, a situation brought about by his freelance status, which has enabled him to pick and choose mounts as appropriate.

Many of the top trainers regularly utilise his services, none more so than James Fanshawe, who has snapped up Spencer for Inchloch (3.50) in the ten furlong Howard Moss Handicap.

The lightly raced three-year-old has only seen the track four times in his life, making the frame on each occasion, including an inaugural victory at Leicester in July.

Inchloch has since let favourite backers down at the same venue, however he's been given a couple of months off to freshen up and could easily have improved 5-7lbs for a welcome mid-summer holiday.

Fanshawe rarely runs his horses unless they are 110 per cent, therefore the fact he has booked Spencer suggests the meticulous Newmarket firm really do mean business in the £8,500 contest.

The Racing UK Apprentice Handicap has got to be one of the worst races ever run on British racecourse.

Being such a lowly affair it is then all the more surprising to see Trapetto, a son of Barathea out of a Fairy King mare, bidding to take the money. On pedigree, Willie Muir's representative should be in a different league, sadly though his form to date is only modest.

Perhaps Muir has missed a trick by not trying Trapetto (3.20) over a mile-and-a-quarter so far, nonetheless he's rectified that oversight by trying the trip this afternoon, a switch which might bring about the required progression to get his head in front.

Despite millions of pounds changing hands for yearlings at yesterday's Newmarket Sales, buyers still had no guarantee that their purchases would possess the requisite courage to the job.

Racehorses need a big heart in more ways than one if they are to succeed, and Nottingham-bound Perfect Blend (5.20) showed plenty of guts to hold off the persistent challenge of Golden Applause when the pair drew five lengths clear in a one-mile Windsor maiden.

Realising his filly was involved in an old-fashioned streetfight, trainer Barry Hills has given Perfect Blend 58 days to recover from her exertions, kindness which could well be repaid in the closing Construction Handicap.

Frustrated at being far too high in the weights over fences, Peter Hiatt has opted to switch Keltic Lord (2.40) to the smaller obstacles in Exeter's Nash And Co Handicap Hurdle.

Considering Keltic Lord last ran off a mark of 111 in a steeplechase, he's clearly thrown in off just 88 in the two-and-three-quarter-mile event. Such differentials don't always work out, but in this instance the gulf is so huge, surely the gelding can take full advantage of his good fortune.