DASHING Red Millenium (3.30) is fancied to win the Listed Landown Fillies' Stakes for the second year in succession at Bath today.

Alan Berry blamed the wet weather in January and February for his slow start to the season, however, his horses are really flying now, boding well for Red Millennium's prospects.

The four-year-old filly certainly gave out all of the right signals when finishing third to Kyllachy in a hot handicap on her comeback at Newbury earlier this month.

Red Millennium's proven ability to handle Bath's sharp downhill five furlong track will also be of invaluable assistance in a contest for which many of the runners will never have encountered such an unusual course.

Unless there is something special amongst the newcomers in the opening Express Cafes Maiden Stakes, Black Belt (2.00) seems poised to get off the mark at only the second time of asking.

The Barry Hills-trained juvenile so nearly prevailed on her debut at Newbury where she finished like a proverbial rocket to finish a neck second to Polar Force.

A bout of seconditis has plagued Roger Charlton's yard over the opening weeks of the season.

But Charlton is too good a trainer to be kept out of the winners' enclosure for long and in the shape of Bel (3.00) he has the right sort of ammunition to deliver in the near mile-and-a-half Weatherbys Fillies Handicap.

Although Bel flopped on her reappearance at Haydock, she had reportedly been working superbly on the home gallops and is well worth forgiving one bad day at the office.

Last year the daughter of the late-lamented sire Darshaan impressed in all three starts, rounding off her campaign with a cosy success at Catterick.

Roger may also be on the mark further north at Nottingham where Pat Eddery gets the leg up on Climate Control (2.10) in the Bestwood Park Maiden Stakes.

Lack of experience probably cost the Mt Livermore filly a win at Kempton three weeks ago when she ran green and couldn't keep tabs on her opponents in the early stages of a six furlong maiden.

When the penny finally dropped Climate Control produced a whirlwind finale, failing only by a whisker to catch Alec Stewart's Mubaah, who has since again run well at Ripon's Saturday meeting. Mark Buckley's Effervesce (2.40) returns to the turf after a successful spell on the sand at Southwell.

For my money she's even better on grass and has the class to make light of top-weight in the Bingham Fillies' Handicap.

In the longest event on the card, the mile-and-six-furlong Newark Handicap, Zahari (3.10) has an opportunity to silence his critics.

Labelled an out-and-out rogue in some quarters after several mulish performances over jumps when in the care of Venetia Williams, he has now been switched to Ian Williams, who is incidentally not related to Veneti. It appears Ian may have sweetened up Zahari, a perfectly creditable sixth at the track over two miles recently.

He'll be far fitter for that outing and if reproducing some of his useful form achieved on the level in France in 1999 could easily prove to be something of a handicap snip.

Finally to Hexham and a change of fortune for Andy Crook, who lost potentially his best horse, Stormin' Native, in a fatal fall at Perth last week.

Andy bounced back with a big winner at the Scottish venue courtesy of Ryalux, a victory which Minster York (2.50) can hopefully follow up in the Alphameric Intermediate Chase.

* Andre Fabre has confirmed Massalani as an intended runner in Saturday's Sagitta 2000 Guineas.

The top French trainer is planning to send his unbeaten colt across the Channel for the Newmarket Classic on the Rowley Mile. Fabre confirmed yesterday: ''He will probably run yes, unless there is a last minute change.''

Massalani has a 100 per cent record with three wins out of three runs to his credit and he has already accounted for one of his possible Newmarket rivals this season.

The son of Ashkalani opened his account in a maiden contest at Clairfontaine last season, before following up with another win in a minor event at Chantilly. He then demonstrated considerable improvement on his reappearance this season when accounting for fellow Guineas hopeful Zipping in the Listed Prix Djebel.

Massalani has not been on the track since that outing but Fabre reports him to be well ahead of his run but the handler is hoping the recent spell of wet weather in Britain will hold off for the rest of the week.