The swimmer who brought this year's Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race to a dramatic halt has denied causing a public nuisance.

For all the delights that qualify the next three afternoons at Chester as a defining ritual of the British Turf, it must be admitted that the city's racecourse was not especially designed with rain in mind. But then nor was it obviously designed for horseracing, either, this dizzy circuit crammed between the city walls and the River Dee – and that does not stop it being a roaring success.

On the eve of the first Classic, Chris McGrath finds some lesser lights it will pay to follow

Though the stable has failed to muster a starter in the Qipco 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket on Saturday, the changing complexion of Godolphin still leaves much to anticipate. For one thing, Mahmood al-Zarooni has two strong chances in the fillies' Classic the following day, in Discourse and Lyric Of Light, a year after sealing his promotion to supervise a yard in his own right through Blue Bunting – who was relieving a Godolphin drought, in both the early Classics, going back to 2002.

Once again, as when Most Improved hobbled away from the Craven Stakes at Newmarket on Thursday, the favourite for a key Qipco 2,000 Guineas trial has dropped out at the 11th hour. Roger Charlton has decided that it would be looking for trouble to run Top Offer in deteriorating conditions at Newbury today, just a fortnight before the Guineas, and duly scratched him from the Aon Greenham Stakes.

Jonjo O'Neill is confident his Cheltenham Gold Cup hero Synchronised is in the form of his life as he bids to follow up in Saturday's John Smith's Grand National.

Connections of the two most lauded racehorses on the planet, Frankel and Black Caviar, have been given a carrot of £1m to square up in a showdown that would command attention far beyond the sport's regular audience, even during the Olympics. With an aggregate of 28 wins from 28 starts between them, Frankel and Black Caviar have hitherto seemed unlikely to meet, even though the latter is being sent from Australia this summer to run at Royal Ascot. But Sheikh Fahad al-Thani, who has invested heavily in the British Turf, has now raised the stakes to a level both camps may find hard to resist.

For Flat racing fans, that business at Aintree that has to be consigned to the formbook before full attention focuses on the purest form of the sport is frustratingly delayed this year; because of the religious calendar, no Grand National will ever have been run on a later date than this year's, on 14 April.

An exciting week for Flat racing kicks off with the climax of the Polytrack season: the Winter Derby card at Lingfield

Inside Track

Scraps from Frankel's table must suffice for British punters this weekend, albeit something rather closer to a square meal is available to those broadening their horizons overseas.

The prospect of Mick Easterby saddling a Group One winner at his big local meeting – in the colours, moreover, of Lee Westwood and Chubby Chandler – is too delicious for many to concern themselves with the odds against Hoof It in the Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes at York today. He certainly warrants a crack at an elite prize, after thriving so extravagantly in handicaps, and should cope with the return to five furlongs after travelling so powerfully over a sixth.

Most people have already abandoned the Ladbrokes St Leger to Sea Moon, runaway winner of his trial here on Wednesday. The favourite must still prove his stamina for the extra 572 yards at Doncaster, however, and proceedings yesterday left no doubt that Blue Bunting will be on his case in that regard.