Roger Charlton sends Trade Fair to Ireland tomorrow as the highly-regarded colt chases his first win since landing the Dubai Duty Free Cup at Newbury last September.

The pages of the tome of history can be weighty to overturn but for Attraction yesterday, the task was easy. The Duke of Roxburghe's filly, trained so expertly by Mark Johnston at Middleham, skipped blithely over the emerald acres of the Curragh to win the 83rd Irish 1,000 Guineas. And in so doing, she became the first to add that Classic to the senior version on the Rowley Mile, which she had annexed three weeks previously.

Geoff Dyer on 'The Desert' by John C Van Dyke

WHATEVER MAGIC the Edinburgh Rocks produced to beat Manchester 79-72 in the Championship's Northern Conference on Saturday night, it deserted them at Sheffield Arena yesterday where the Giants took revenge to beat them 82-60 in the National Cup semi-finals.

DIRECT ROUTE and Edredon Bleu are set for a rematch in the Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown on Saturday week. The pair, separated by two and a half lengths when first and second respectively last year, were among eight entries for the Grade One contest.

God's Fugitive: a life of C M Doughty by Andrew Taylor HarperColllins, pounds 17.99, 350pp: Jan Morris rejoices that the greatest, and weirdest, desert traveller has emerged from the shadows

THE FREE HANDICAP is often thought to be the poor relation among the Classic trials at the Craven meeting, but 12 months ago it came into an unexpected inheritance from a long-forgotten aunt. Racegoers headed away from Newmarket at the end of the week with thoughts only for Xaar, who had just won the Craven Stakes, but it was Desert Prince, the Free Handicap winner 24 hours earlier, who turned out to be by far the best horse to appear at the meeting. His next four outings were all in Group One events - and he won three, and finished second in the other.

THE WORD "soft" features in the official going description at Aintree today, but even television viewers could hear the hooves rattling during yesterday's racing, and a surprising number of runners managed to get round in the John Hughes Chase. The lesson seemed to be that unless a deluge arrived overnight, the ground today will be good, at worst.

AIDAN O'BRIEN runs Black Rock Desert in the Group Three Gladness Stakes at the Curragh tomorrow. Black Rock Desert is at 11-1 for the 2,000 Guineas with Ladbrokes.

STRAVINSKY HAS been pushed out from 5-1 to 12-1 for the 2,000 Guineas after defeat at the Curragh yesterday at odds of 2-5. Aidan O'Brien's charge failed by a head to hold a late challenge by the 10-1 chance Tarfaa in the seven-furlong Loughbrown Race on very soft ground.