OUR sister newspaper, The East Cleveland Advertiser, sponsor a fascinating six-runner handicap on Northern Echo Family Fun Day at Redcar tomorrow.

In such a relatively small field the task of finding the winner ought not to be that difficult, but nothing could be further from the truth since none of the sextet can be discounted with any measure of confidence.

At least with one of the runners, Polish Corridor, hailing from County Durham, and another two, Vicious Warrior and Portacasa, stabled in Yorkshire, there is an even money chance that the £6,097 first prize will stay in our region.

I had originally pencilled in the Denton-near-Darlington trained Polish Corridor as the potential victor, however his astute handler, Michael Dods, was not over hopeful.

"He's a nice horse, but wouldn't want it too soft. We might even decide not to run him if it gets very testing," reported Michael.

With plenty of rain around at present and doubts over Polish Corridor's ability to handle any ease in the ground, the percentage call therefore has to be Vicious Warrior (4.10), trained at Scarcroft near Leeds by Richard Whitaker.

Vicious Warrior showed a liking for juice in the turf when outstaying a useful field at Ripon in June. He was then most unlucky at Doncaster when his regular jockey Dean McKeown went up a blind alley on the inner and saw about as much daylight as a fish on the bottom of the North Sea at midnight.

Most recently maybe Vicious Warrior was biting off more than he could chew in a hot race at Newmarket and it's my feeling he'll be far more at home now that he takes a significant drop in class.

l Conditions are set to be ideal for Godolphin's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Sakhee on his European comeback at Deauville today.

Sakhee, pulled out of Ascot's King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes two weeks ago due to fast going, is at his best when the mud's flying.

And persistent showers mean the Group Three Prix Gontaut-Biron should be run on soft ground as he makes his first racecourse appearance since finishing third to his stable companion Street Cup in the Dubai World Cup at Nad Al Sheba in March.

The five-year-old, with jockey Richard Hills replacing chicken pox victim Frankie Dettori, will be accompanied by his stablemate Sydenham in the ten-furlong contest.

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