RYMER'S RASCAL might well turn out to be a menacing prospect as far as the bookies' are concerned at Catterick this afternoon.

Scurrying around tight left-hand bends presents few problems for Eric Alston's eight-year-old because he has shown time and again a marked preference for sharp tracks.

And armed with the knowledge that Rymer's Rascal comes into the Darlington Handicap in fine fettle after his fourth at Ayr, the men with fat satchels will be running slightly scared of the gelding and therefore probably only going offer fairly paltry odds about the selection.

There might be a better starting price to be had about Zaragossa (2.45) in the earlier Hornby Handicap.

She's an adaptable type of filly who goes on any sort of surface. Inclined to be headstrong by nature, Zaragossa prefers to run up with the pace - ideal tactics for this particular contest in which she is likely to get a nice lead from the normally fast-away Pleasure Time.

The form figures of Effervescent (4.15) stand out in the Northallerton Maiden Stakes, but the closing Stockton Handicap is a far more difficult race to solve.

Needwood Mystic (4.45) will almost certainly begin as one of the outsiders, however a reproduction of the two wins he recorded at Warwick in 1999 might just be good enough. Ability to act on Brighton's switchback track is an essential ingredient when choosing horses at the south coast course.

Although Arthurs Kingdom (3.00) hasn't actually won there, he is proven on similarly undulating tracks, and therefore gets the nod in the mile-and-a-half John Bloor Memorial Handicap.

Some pretty wet weather is forecast for the area, prompting an interest in Rainbow Rain (4.00) for the Collins Stewart Handicap.

Not I might add for the topical nature of his name, rather his effectiveness when there is cut in the ground, added to a curious disposition of popping up when least expected.

Milton Bradley's stable continue to pick off minor sprints almost at random up and the down the country.

Shrewd Milton regularly uses a blanket technique, often running two or more of his inmates in one race. This makes it something of a guessing game for punters, who must decide between Sunset Harbour (4.30) and Indian Bazaar in the Ladbrokes Handicap.

Weighing up the available evidence, I'll stick with Sunset Harbour, a battling track and trip winner last month