SNOW BUNTING (2.55) is worth a speculative bet in the day's big race at Redcar, the £14,000 Tote Scoop6 Handicap.

Rookie Middleham handler Jedd O'Keeffe has been very slow out of the blocks this season, but Snow Bunting showed the tide might be about to turn for the stable by finishing in the frame on both of his last two outings.

At one stage in his career O'Keeffe's chestnut gelding looked little better than a useful selling plater, however that all changed during his 2002 campaign when scoring three times in all, including over course and distance in September.

Crucially Snow Bunting needs fast ground, so the warm, drying breeze which has fanned the course this week will have done his prospects no harm whatsoever. He also loves to come late and fast off a strong early pace and with the presence of the confirmed front-runner Smart Predator in the line up, there will be no worries in that department.

Snow Bunting's apprentice jockey, Leanne Kershaw, is still able to claim 7lb, the vital weight allowance Leanne is able to take off Snow Bunting's back could prove to be the difference between victory and defeat.

* Nayef's attempt at the inaugural £1m British Horseracing Board Summer Triple Crown appeared less likely to get off the ground yesterday after trainer Marcus Tregoning hinted that the Coral-Eclipse Stakes at Sandown, the next leg of the challenge, could be bypassed.

After an impressive win in the Prince Of Wales's Stakes at Ascot on Wednesday, Tregoning nominated the two remaining contests in the Triple Crown - the Coral-Eclipse and the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes - as Nayef's next targets.

But with just over a fortnight until the Eclipse and then three weeks before the Ascot contest, connections could abandon the attempt.

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