JAMES BETHELL'S far-sighted plan to plunder the Victoria Cup with his stable-star Mine (2.45), which was exclusively revealed to readers of Racing North in March, appears all set to come to fruition at Ascot.

The final piece of the jigsaw fell neatly into place when the red-hot ante-favourite for the valuable seven-furlong race, Polar Bear, was yesterday eliminated due to a recently-enforced safety limit at the course, which has reduced the number of allowed runners from 30 to 20 on the straight track.

While Polar Bear's trainer, Willie Haggas, was left fuming, Bethell's fortunes have clearly taken a turn for the better. "Mine only won once last year, but that was due in no small part to a run of bad luck when he was constantly hampered by being drawn badly," said James.

In terms of a prep-race, Mine could hardly have given a more encouraging account as he ran a corker when only narrowly beaten into third spot by the handicap "good thing", Autumn Glory, over one-mile at York.

Although successful at that distance in the past, I belong to the school of thought believing Mine to be fractionally more effective over today's slightly shorter trip, and he therefore gets a confident nod despite the obvious strength of the opposition.

There's an equally competitive handicap at Haydock, featuring 20 front-line three-year-old milers vying for the £90,000 totesport Silver Bowl.

Using the best evidence available to sort out the most likely outcome, the ratings suggest Zonus and Gatwick will be the duo scrapping it out in the closing stages.

Mick Channon landed an enormous gamble to collect a similar standard event with Gatwick this week, but it is the hugely progressive Zonus (2.30) who really takes the eye.

Despite rolling round like a drunken duck, Zonus failed by a gnat's whisker to catch Oasis Star at Chester last time out. And it wasn't his fault either because Zonus was simply unable to cope with the notorious camber up the home straight, which leans viciously towards the far rail.

The Barry Hills-trained raider won't have the same problem at this venue, where the final few furlongs are as flat as the proverbial pancake - much more suited to the long, raking stride used by Zonus to such stunning effect when he scored on his debut at Doncaster's Lincoln fixture.

In the preceding Davy Jones Mortgage Stakes, High Voltage (2.00) has the power to follow-up his unexpected 40-1 return success at Ripon.

High Voltage has done exceptionally well physically over the winter, the outcome no doubt of a gelding operation. Karl Burke's speedster has the scope to develop into a smart sprinter this term and he should not be missed in the £30,000 dash.

Burke's fellow Middleham trainer, Chris Thornton, could also be in the money at Newmarket, where Lets Roll (1.50) can put behind the misery of his Sandown flop by grabbing the spoils in the opening Countryside Raceday Handicap.

* Vodafone Derby entry Almuraad gained his second success from three outings under Richard Hills in the Robinsons Mercedes-Benz A-Class Stakes at Newmarket yesterday but he looks set to give the Epsom Classic a miss.

The 11-10 favourite, who is trained by Sir Michael Stoute, made hard work of his task.

He headed the long-time leader Mukafeh, who, like the former, carries the colours of Hamdan Al Maktoum, but the race was far from over.

And he had to he ridden right out to the line to score by half a length.

The winning owner's racing manager, Angus Gold, said: ''I have not even spoken to Sheikh Hamdan about it (running at Epsom), but is has got to be unlikely."

Hills completed a quick double when bringing the Mark Tompkins-trained Astrocharm (11-1) home in front in the mile and a half Robinsons Mercedes-Benz SLK Stakes.