THORNY MANDATE (5.10) may well possess sufficient tactical speed to overcome a lousy wide draw and take the closing St Helens Handicap at Haydock.

Although stall 16 is not ideal at the Midlands venue as the incumbent is forced to come all round the houses, Thorny Mandate is a hold-up horse and therefore will be threading his way through the pack, rather than trying to make a challenge on the outside of the field.

Fulke Johnston Houghton's three-year-old is making a swift return to the fray after a heartbreaking short-head defeat by Barbirolli at Chester on Sunday. It was a desperate disappointment to followers of the column seeing as Thorny Mandate was carrying the nap selection that day, however let's hope it's second time lucky in today's extended mile-and-a-quarter contest.

The fact that the prolific sire of sprint scorers, Mind Games, continues to churn out winners, provides very solid reasons to support Make Us Flush (2.40).

The Alan Berry-trained filly ran up a sequence of coconuts on her first three outings this term, prompting Berry to drop her down to claiming company. As it turned out the smart ploy so nearly came off as Make Us Flush was denied by the minimum margin in a thrilling photo finish at Carlisle last week.

The filly's confidence will have been boosted no end by that welcome return to something like her best, setting up the possibility of victory in the six-furlong NSPCC Charity Day Handicap.

Bill Turner has been having a fairly lean time of late but the appearance of Princely Vale (8.15) at Folkestone's evening meeting seems likely to bring about a change in the popular Dorset handler's fortunes.

Following a highly lucrative two-year-old campaign when he won three times in all, Princely Vale was handicapped to the hilt at the start of this season and failed to cut much ice in the spring and early summer.

In such instances the individual concerned often recovers come the autumn, so even though he couldn't hold a candle to the fast-improving Gimasha on a recent visit to Warwick, it was significant that Turner's gelding still managed to beat off the rest of his rivals with ease.

Princely Vale might not be a superstarbut his heart is in the right place, which could make things very difficult for the opposition in the Giddy Girls Gallop Handicap.

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