Dance a step in front of Phantom

Racing

GREG WOOD

In an age when we like our sporting heroes brash and flamboyant, Saeed bin Suroor is an unlikely addition alongside Cantona, Agassi and Gazza. Yet if the requests for signed photographs have so far failed to appear at his home, it may be only a matter of time. With a strike-rate of almost one in three and a return to punters of pounds 25 to a pounds 1 level stake this season, the man who holds the trainer's licence for Godolphin is rapidly becoming the backers' favourite pin-up.

Yesterday alone, Heart Lake, now expected to be Godolphin's principal challenger for the July Cup at Newmarket on Thursday, was backed from 14-1 down to 9-2. Today, Phantom Creek will make her racecourse debut in the Cherry Hinton Stakes. Before she has ever left a starting stall in anger, the Godolphin reputation has made her 25-1 favourite for next year's 1,000 Guineas. The Middle East has not had such a hold on the markets since the last oil crisis.

It is typical of Godolphin that Phantom Creek is starting her racecourse career in a Group Three event which includes three Royal Ascot runners- up, Dance Sequence (in the Queen Mary Stakes), Paloma Bay (Chesham) and Applaud (Windsor Castle). Such is the quality of their team that anything below Pattern class seems like fraternising with the domestics, and we can be fairly sure that Phantom Creek will not embarrass them today.

Dance Sequence is her most significant rival, despite being the only other maiden in the field. She has finished second to Blue Duster -who is owned by Sheikh Mohammed -on both her starts, so the Godolphin team which is the Sheikh's brainchild should have a shrewd idea of what they are up against.

The difference for Dance Sequence (3.05), however, may be today's extra furlong. She looked as if she would be better for it at Ascot, and her experience should bring a second successive Cherry Hinton for the Cheveley Park Stud and Michael Stoute.

Deja vu, too, perhaps after the Princess of Wales's Stakes, won last year by Alec Stewart and Hamdan Al Maktoum with Wagon Master. Their representative this time is Istidaad, who most recently finished fifth to Pentire in the King Edward VII Stakes -the "Ascot Derby" -at the Royal meeting.

Presenting, one of his opponents today, finished third in the real Derby, form which would generally place him far in advance of Istidaad. Pentire, however, is arguably the best three-year-old around, while the Epsom form failed its first serious test three days ago when Fahal, fourth in the Derby, was well beaten in a mere Listed race at Haydock.

Istidaad would be a good bet against Presenting in a match, but neither may cope with a horse whose wins-to-runs ratio is feeble, but whose quality is undisputed. Needle Gun has just one victory, in a minor conditions event, to his credit, but his placed efforts, on the Continent in particular, have added more than pounds 250,000 to Clive Brittain's prize-money total over the years.

His lack of Pattern success also means that, in a race which often favours three-year-olds, Needle Gun has less weight to give away to the Classic generation than such rivals as Beauchamp Hero and Time Star. NEEDLE GUN (nap 3.40) was an excellent third in the Prince of Wales's Stakes at Ascot on his seasonal debut three weeks ago, and with Michael Kinane to guide him, should finally achieve the Pattern success he deserves.

Today's two televised handicaps involve fields of 15 and eight, but it may be the former which offers the most scope for profit. Deevee (next best 2.35) and Western Fame are the most probable winners, with the former's preference for the track earning him the verdict. Avoid the sprint handicap for three-year-olds and wait instead for the next event, in which Forest Cat, Courageous Dancer and Bouche Bee all attempt to extend a winning sequence to three. Bouche Bee (4.45) should succeed.