MILTON BRADLEY'S last minute decision to re-route The Tatling (2.40) from Ayr to Newbury looks to be a shrewd piece of placing by the evergreen 68-year-old sprint maestro.

Bradley's speed-star was originally due to carry top-weight in the Ayr Gold Cup, a race in which he was heartbreakingly beaten by not much more than the width of fag paper in 2002.

The Tatling has since gone on to land a Group 3 contest at Glorious Goodwood and is now much better off being campaigned away from handicap company in Pattern races such as the valuable Dubai International Airport World Trophy.

Frankie Dettori takes the ride on The Tatling and provided the ground stays fast, Milton's flying machine only has reproduce the form of his second placing to Oasis Dream in York's Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes to capture the £40,000 event.

There's no shortage of talent on show in the later mile-and-a-quarter Courage Best Stakes worth a staggering £100,000.

Last year's surprise 20-1 winner, Solo Flight, bids to scoop the pot once again, however consistency has never been the strong point of the Barry Hills-trained grey. More likely to give us a run for our money is Greta d'Argent (3.15), so brave when making every yard of the running to collect at Doncaster on St Leger day.

The drop back to ten furlongs might not seem ideal, but from her wide draw she'll not be able to dominate early doors which could be a blessing in disguise since I'm convinced the leaders will go off too fast.

This may well set up the race for the likes of Greta d'Argent, whose proven stamina should come into play once the chief protagonists are eye-balling each other over the final 200 yards.

Nearer to home, I reckon the best bet by a country mile at Catterick is going to be Telori (5.20) in the closing catterickbridge.co.uk Fillies' Handicap.

She's a previous track and trip scorer, well suited by ripping round the bottom bend at a million miles an hour.

Telori has also been blessed with an excellent low draw and I fully expect Ian Semple's five-year-old mare to blow her rivals clean out of the water with a blistering pillar-to-post victory.

Polar Bear (2.55) might well live up to his name by giving his rivals a right good mauling in the one-mile Tote Ayrshire Handicap.

Canny Newmarket handler Willie Haggas has kept his inmate very much under wraps this term, turning him out just once at headquarters 49 days ago. Not many racehorses can justify hefty annual training fees with such a light programme, but Polar Bear bucked the trend when supported from 6-1 to 100-30 to land a major gamble.

Upped a backbreaking 10lb for the win, Polar Bear arguably has much more on his plate in today's £25,000 race on the west-coast of Scotland. Even in view of that dramatic hike, I wouldn't be too put off since there are a couple of indicators to suggest the gelding is capable of significant further progress.

For starters he's a son of Polar Falcon, a Group 1 winning sire whose stock often improve out all proportion once they get the bit between their teeth. Secondly, this is the time of year when the three-year-olds tend to catch up and often overtake their more-exposed elders.

The weathers forecasters are predicting yet another warm weekend which will not do the prospects of Warwick-bound Adode (4.35) any harm whatsoever.

Mark Brisbourne's useful miler finished like a rocket when runner-up at Thirsk last Saturday and with the ground continuing to ride like concrete he'll not be far away in the Paul Curran 40th Birthday Handicap.

* Frankie Dettori won on four short-priced favourites at Nottingham yesterday.

He brought home Free Trip (6-5), Quartino (2-11), Murashah (11-8) and Etching (5-4) and was short-headed on 4-1 shot Castaway Queen by Shasta in the last race.

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