BRIAREUS (3.35) is the banker bet on a busy seven-race card at Newbury this afternoon.

Andrew Balding's four-year-old carries joint top-weight in the TKP Surfacing Handicap, but that shouldn't be a barrier to success on the evidence of his most recent second placing to Telemachus at Doncaster.

Just behind Briareus on that occasion was Jabaar, who ran a cracker when not beaten far in a similarly tough heat at York yesterday. It's normally a good omen when the form is franked in such fashion, and with Kevin Darley in the saddle, Briareus is fully expected to give us a great run for our money.

Yarmouth-bound Armagnac (3.10) owes us one or two favours following a couple of near-misses when tipped up by the column last season.

He didn't really make much of a fist of his latest start when finishing well down the field, however I think there might have been a valid excuse since Armagnac was caught napping in the stalls and had to use up invaluable energy to make up the ground he'd lost.

Mark Buckley sprinter isn't normally a slow starter and provided he gets off to a level break, then there's no reason why the nap selection won't go very close off what is undoubtedly a very favourable handicap mark.

Hats off to Hamilton for staging a brilliant evening fixture, with top-of-the-bill going to the £35,000 Listed Saffe & Joseph Braveheart Stakes.

I don't recall Godolphin ever having a runner at the award-winning Scottish venue, nonetheless there's a first time for everything and former leading Derby contender, Fight Your Corner, looks sure to give a good account for the boys in blue.

Mark Johnston is also well represented in the mile-and-a-half encounter courtesy of Legal Approach and Morson Boy (7.25).

Both are extremely useful middle-distance horses, with preference marginally for Morson Boy, a four-year-old with a massive future judged on his three from four impressive victories during a hugely lucrative 2003 campaign.

Although Richard Fahey has left yesterday's game Knavesmire scorer, Vintage Premium, in the line-up, he could wake up this morning feeling the effects of a hard race and would be a risky proposition from a betting perspective.

But that's not to say Fahey will return to Malton emply-handed since Bo McGinty (6.50) must be in with a shout for the McGrattan Pilling Handicap. "He's got scope and I'm sure will win more races," said Richard of his speedy three-year-old who ran a race full of promise, despite a lousy wide draw, on his reappearance at Chester last week.

Hamilton is being covered by Sky Television along with the jumps' meeting at Aintree, where the star of the show might easily prove to be Richard Guest's Ceresfield (6.35).

Two miles on a sharp track are a prerequisite for Ceresfield to perform at optimum level, so seeing as both of those conditions are met in full the in-form eight-year-old might take some beating in the Weatherbys Bank Handicap Chase.

l British Horseracing Board chairman Peter Savill spoke yesterday of the ''critical importance'' of getting television pictures back on the screens of satellite and digital viewers as soon as possible, writes TATTENHAM.

At The Races (ATR) is set to launch a free-to-air service some time next month, while The Horse Racing Channel (THRC) aims to be up and running in the ''next couple of weeks'' and will also be free to view, in its early stages at least.

The original plan had been for THRC to be a subscription-based service at around £20 per month.

Savill, who is also chairman of Plumpton, one of the six tracks still to sign up with either of the broadcasters, said: ''It doesn't really matter whether there are one, two or even three different channels as long as they are viable propositions.

''There is probably more product now than there was when attheraces and the Racing Channel were on air together, and I think there is no reason the two channels cannot be on air at the same time.

''But it is critically important for turnover to have pictures on television as soon as possible. That was discovered in 1987, when pictures first came into betting shops and turnover jumped. It is exactly the same today.

"I am aware of a certain amount of discordance about the situation on the BHB's side."

Representatives of Hamilton Park will meet with THRC today as they continue to consider their options over the proposed new channels.

Along with Cartmel, Newton Abbot, Plumpton, Ripon and Salisbury, Hamilton met with ATR on Tuesday.