This has been the plan for Troubador for a couple of months now - the only problem is that this looks to be one of the most competitive renewals of the Racing TV Redcar Two Year Old Trophy that there has been for two or three years now.

Unusually, there are three horses with official ratings of 100-plus in the line-up. That's great news for Redcar, of course, for whom this is such an important race. But perhaps not so good for us, although I still think he has a very, very solid chance.

Michael Dods' horses are in good form; any give in the ground won't bother him; we deliberately bypassed Ayr to keep him fresh for this. I've had a couple of sits on him in recent weeks and he feels fantastic - I'm sure he is still strengthening up all the time.

Summer Sands sets a stiff standard if he can follow up his big Newmarket run last weekend. Clearly, he's well-in at the weights too. But I see we are drawn next to each other up the middle and I'd like to thin we could be fighting it out at the finish. Having already won three on him last year, he's a horse I already have a real soft spot for.

The Listed race on the card, the Racing TV EBF Stallions Guisborough Stakes, has only attracted seven declared runners, so hopefully Muntadab can go very well for Roger Fell.

I think they always intended to bring him back at this time of the year when the ground was starting to come in his favour and he definitely has the form to run a big race. He's absolutely certain to have come on for the run last weekend.

Detachment makes a quick return to action after running at Ayr in the week when he goes in the Market Cross Jewellers Handicap. Maybe the ground was just too testing for him there, because he had run quite well at Doncaster previously and he is coming down the weights to a mark from which he should be able to do some damage.

My final ride of the day is aboard Manshood in the Watch Race Replays at Racingtv.com Handicap. He knows as much about racing as any of us do having had plenty of starts, but he ran well at Doncaster most recently where I thought he might just have been a little unlucky.

If he's in the same mood, then I wouldn't be surprised if he went close.

On Sunday, I'll be watching the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe and Enable's bid at making history with a third victory.

There's no such thing is a certainty in racing, but when you have a mare who has been as brilliant as her, you just end up praying that she won't get beaten - it's not unlike Frankel towards the end of his career. Let's hope she can do it.

Finally, although it was a jumps track, I was really sad to read about the closure of Towcester as a horse-racing venue this week. Some famous moments in racing have occurred there.

More than that though, I hope it's not another sign of racecourses coming under ever-increasing pressure to sell their land and cash in for housebuilding.

Paul is sponsored by Racing TV, the home of British and Irish racing. For more on the leading horseracing channel, which shows every race live from 61 racecourses, please visitwww.racingtv.com/join.