BORIS THE SPIDER (4.45) should be suited by conditions in Ayr's Western House Hotel Novices Handicap Hurdle.

The Scottish air clearly suits Michael Hammond's Middleham-based horse, who has posted a win on the Flat at the course on a similarly testing surface.

Having opted to switch Boris The Spider to the jumps, Hammond must have been desperately disappointed with his charge until a recent revival when occupying third spot at Sedgefield.

Provided the selection maintains that encouraging upward curve, there's no reason why he won't go well again, especially as the five-year-old has the perfect physique to excel over the sticks.

Michael's near neighbour, Kate Walton, also travels north in the hope Morgan Be (3.35) can follow-up up his victory at the track in January.

It was a bloodless success against a bunch of slow coaches, but Morgan Be could do little more than dish out a fearful drubbing to his seven rivals.

In all probability there's more to come from the Kate's progressive six-year-old, a leading contender for the James Barclay Challenge Trophy.

Richard Guest has always held Sobers (2.30) in the highest regard, so quite why he's not living up to his namesake and hitting the opposition for six remains a mystery.

Few trainers are as good a judge of horseflesh as Guest, so although he's cost his supporters a pretty packet to date, it could pay to stick with Sobers for the Kidzplay Maiden Hurdle.

Diamond Mick, re-routed to Sandown after the abandonment of Newcastle on Tuesday, will be hard to beat in the opening Barclays Amateur Riders Handicap Hurdle.

Even though Diamond Mick (2.10) picked up a couple of races at Kelso in 2005, he doesn't look harshly treated, nor was he fully race-fit on his belated reappearance 27 days ago.

Bound to have come on in leaps-and-bounds for that pleasing pipe- opener, he seems sure to go well, along with last year's winner of the race, Brian Ellison's Transit.

* Members of the horse-racing community have spoken of their shock after the death of promising young rider Anna de Lisle Wells, who was found dead at her mother's home in the Cotswolds.

Miss De Lisle Wells, 23, is believed to have taken her own life at her mother's stables in Temple Guiting, Gloucestershire, on March 1.

Miss De Lisle Wells, from Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, was a talented jockey who was due to ride Mighty Montefalco in the Christie's Foxhunter Chase, the top amateur race at next week's Cheltenham Festival.

A graduate of Reading University, she was crowned West Midlands Novice Champion when aged just 16.

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