Racing: Rudimental heads Hunt Cup betting

PASTERNAK, the favourite when ante-post lists opened last week, was one of nine withdrawals yesterday from the Royal Hunt Cup.

Sir Mark Prescott took out last year's Cambridgeshire winner from the pounds 110,000 handicap but the same trainer's Rudimental, second in the Cambridgeshire, is 10-1 favourite with Ladbrokes for the one-mile event on 17 June, in which 83 horses stand their ground.

The other Hunt Cup withdrawals were Russian Music, Jorrocks, Kuala Lipis, Tigrello, Autumn Cover, Sharp Shuffle, Bollin Terry and Test The Water.

Sheltering Sky remains Ladbrokes' 8-1 favourite for the Wokingham Stakes, the other big handicap at Royal Ascot, after 81 of the original 90 entries were left in at the forfeit stage. Out of the Wokingham Stakes are Al Muallim, Cayman Kai, Lets Be Fair, Qilin, Welville, Legs Be Friendly, Gift of Gold, Smooth Sailing, Rejected.

At Goodwood yesterday there was an apt victory for Out Line in the inaugural running of the Jack Holt Memorial Handicap. Saddled by the late trainer's old friend Michael Madgwick, the mare - out of Holt's multiple-winning sprinter Free Range - also runs in the colours of owner-breeder Dinah Green, a long-standing patron of Holt, who died in 1995.