DEAN MCKEOWN might easily walk away with the two feature races at Ripon this afternoon courtesy of Nevada Desert (3.15) and Lets Roll (3.45).

The canny forty-four-year-old jockey relies on guile rather than brute force to make the job pay these days, generally preferring to finesse his mounts through the field if at all possible.

In the case of Nevada Desert, trained by Richard Whitaker at Scarcroft, the preliminaries for the mile-and-a-quarter Leeds Hospital Fund Handicap are of paramount importance if McKeown is to strut his stuff.

Whitaker's four-year-old got himself in a right old paddy on his latest visit to the course, sweating up and jig-jogging in the paddock beforehand, rather than calmly strolling round the parade ring and thus conserving vital energy for the contest.

In the circumstances Nevada Desert, who was not surprisingly raced keenly and up with the pace throughout, did well to hang on to fifth spot, not beaten far by Langford in a bunch for the minor placings.

Considering Langford has won again since, and the fourth home, Blonde Streak, also did the business by landing a tasty 8-1 winning nap for the column at York last week, the form has worked out quite superbly.

As far Lets Roll is concerned in the Ripon Bell-Ringer Stakes, Dean will doubtless adopt exactly the same hold-up tactics utilised when the pair picked up a £20,000 handicap at Redcar recently.

McKeown brought all of vast experience into play on that occasion, cunningly loitering in last place until the leaders hit the two-furlong from home marker, it was only then that "the Dean machine" unleashed Lets Roll, who cut down the opposition with a blinding turn of foot.

Mark Buckley has trained some pretty good horses for his father, Chris, including Armagnac (4.40), a leading contender in Newbury's Doric Signs Rated Stakes.

Armagnac generally chips in with at least one victory per term, a strike-rate which would have been maintained but for the blundering antics of jockey Dane O'Neill eight days ago at Ascot.

O'Neill anchored his horse early doors, giving the rest of the field a ludicrously long head start. To compound the error, he than ran his horse up a blind alley and had to swerve violently right-handed to obtain a clear run.

Although pair made up a prodigious amount of late headway, the winner, Prince Aaron, had already scooted away from the pack and established an unassailable advantage.

In his defence O'Neill reported that Armagnac "lost his action" midway through the contest, which begs the question, why didn't he ease the horse right down?

For my money Dane simply fluffed his lines and the fact Steve Drowne now takes over in the saddle is a reassuring sight for prospective backers of the consistent six-year-old speedster.

With a staggering £70,000 up for grabs in the Summer Plate Handicap Chase at Market Rasen, many of the top National Hunt outfits have made a bee-line for the Lincolnshire venue.

Martin Pipe's in-form Montreal bids to take the loot back down to Somerset.

However he'll not represent much value and the alternative suggestion is Latalonmne, successful on the Flat at Ripon and seemingly a reformed character since leaving Brian Ellison and joining fellow Malton handler, Noel Wilson.

The tried-and-tested formula of supporting top-weights in Nursery Handicaps makes plenty of sense with regard to Midnight Tycoon (6.40) for the five-furlong opener at Haydock.

Bryan Smart's two-year-old got off the mark on his debut at Hamilton, prior to an even better run when a finishing a close-up third in the always competitive Brian Yeardley Continental Stakes.

Midnight Tycoon then ran a shade disappointingly when failing to justify favouritism at Hamilton, nevertheless he might have had an off day and looks the sort fully capable of bouncing back.

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