EDDIES JEWEL (3.50) gets his first real chance to shine this season in the Musselburgh Banded Stakes.

From a realistic punting perspective the best policy so far has been to keep one's powder dry on Eddies Jewel, however that situation is all change bearing in mind his latest fourth placing at Leicester.

The five-year-old put in a game effort on that occasion, holding every chance until swamped inside the final 100 yards when the combination of soft ground plus seven-furlong trip caught him out.

Eddies Jewel has proven stamina at a mile-and-a-quarter, so today's step up in trip to one-mile, together with the predicted much faster surface, will help his cause no end in the lowly £2,000 affair.

Ten-to-follow pick, Let It Be (4.20), turns out in the following North Berwick Banded Stakes.

Seeing as Keith Reveley's team landed a big touch at Plumpton on Sunday, there's no doubting the decent form of the yard and it all boils down to whether Let It Be has done sufficient work to overcome a 223-day absence.

Generally speaking Keith's runners are the subject of significant market support if they are strongly fancied, therefore the betting exchanges need to be closely monitored before taking the plunge on the four-year-old filly in the mile-and-three-quarter contest.

Yarmouth-bound Morgan Lewis (4.00) is a must for the short-list in the Betfred Sprint Series Handicap.

Having been caught napping in the stalls first time out this term, he then made eye-catching late headway to take sixth spot at Leicester under the minimum amount of assistance from the saddle.

Trainer Jonathan Geake has given his gelding a 17-day break since that promising comeback, an admirably suitable period to get him 100 per cent ready in preparation for this particular dash up the home straight.

Richard Fahey has wasted no time at all in bringing out Peters Delite (4.30), who lost no caste in defeat when runner-up at Chester five days ago.

By virtue of his diabolically wide draw, Peters Delite had to come via the Cape to get within sniffing distance of the leaders, eventually storming into second spot from an impossible looking early position.

There'll be no problems for the selection now that he's faced with a straight six furlongs, which should enable Peters Delite to open his account and hopefully go onto better things in the future.

If you feel like hanging on until the final race at Huntingdon, Stopwatch (8.15) might help pay the evening's expenses.

Stopwatch hasn't been performing that badly over fences, but it is the switch to the smaller obstacles at a course where he has won in the past that really puts the icing on the cake.

* Channel 4 Racing has received three nominations for the 2005 Royal Television Society Sports Awards to be held on May 23. Their coverage of the totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2004, when Best Mate won a third consecutive time, was nominated in the category of Live Outside Broadcast.

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