WETHERBY'S valuable £20,000 Rocom BT Hurdle has not surprisingly attracted raiders from all parts of the country, but hopefully the booty will remain in North Yorkshire courtesy of Virgin Soldier (3.30).

The Melsonby-near-Richmond trained gelding, who now resides at Alan Swinbank's stable following a prolifically-successful career on the flat with Mark Johnston, acts well on the prevailing fast ground which has decimated the fields at the fixture, as well as causing the abandonment of all chase races. Virgin Soldier has never minded how hard underfoot conditions become - indeed his legs of steel have even stood up to the rigours of winning his last three outings over fences.

The reversion to the smaller obstacles doubtless has something to do with the substantial amount of prize money on offer, although it shouldn't be a problem to Swinbank's versatile chestnut, who has always possessed bags of natural speed.

The remainder of the card is largely uncompetitive, leaving the in-form Richard Guest to continue his excellent run by mopping up a couple of the other races on the card with Gabla (4.05) and Bolton Barrie (5.15)

Gabla looks in a class of his own in the skybet.com Handicap Hurdle, while Bolton Barrie makes a quick-fire reappearance having collected at Carlisle last Friday, a victory for which he only has to carry a 7lb penalty in the McCain Novices' Handicap Hurdle.

It is a similarly depressing state of affairs at Uttoxeter where the supposed main attraction, the £6,500 Scottish Equitable/Jockeys Association Handicap Hurdle, has been restricted to just three runners.

Of the trio I just favour Red Sun (3.10), the runaway scorer of an identical contest at Market Rasen earlier on this month.

Red Sun's winning margin of 11 lengths may even have been doubled had Tony McCoy pushed his mount right out to the line. As far as decent betting opportunities go, Lingfield provides punters with the best chance of making a profit.

One horse in particular, Maystock (4.30), has to be on the short-list following Gerard Butler's decision to step his filly up to a distance of two miles for the first time in the Dawson News Handicap.

Butler's yard has an excellent record on the polytrack, primarily because the Oxfordshire-based handler regularly travels his string to gallop on the man-made surface.

And Gerard's decision to give Maystock a nine-week break during the summer seems well worthwhile, judged by her encouraging comeback at Haydock where she was making ground hand-over-fist in the closing stages over an arguably inadequate trip of 12 furlongs.

In the earlier one-mile John Menzies Handicap, Labrett (2.45) has a outstanding prospects at the weights.

Gay Kelleway's six-year-old is rated 83 on turf, however, on his return to the all-weather he runs off a mark of just 72. Seeing as Labrett has been performing with admirable consistency on grass over the past few months, I see no reason why he should not make his obvious advantage count.

Get more on racing at our Racing North site.