William Hill Great St Wilfrid Stakes Tips

The William Hill Great St Wilfrid Stakes at Ripon on Saturday looks set to live up to its reputation of being a decidedly competitive sprint, and the Kevin Ryan-trained Mutamared is generally favourite after his cracking effort when second to Borderlescott in the Stewards' Cup at Glorious Goodwood. However, he is far from certain to reproduce that form given his overall profile and his stablemate, Desert Commander, who failed to run his race in the Stewards' Cup, can bounce back and reverse the placings with him on this occasion, and he rates cracking value to do so at 16/1 with VCbet The son of Green Desert, who was originally with the boys in blue of Godolphin, looked a sprinter to follow when easily beating Zidane by two and a half lengths over the Great St Wilfrid course and distance in June. He is now 8lb higher in the ratings, but with just seven starts under his belt, he is open to plenty of improvement. In that Goodwood cavalry charge, Desert Commander simply failed to fire and his jockey that day, Mick Kinane, eased his mount a fair way out when it was clear that he wasn't travelling well. Given the raw speed he showed here on his penultimate start, he remains a potential Pattern-race class sprinter running off a fair mark in handicaps. Another ex-Godolphin-trained runner to consider in this event is Bayuex, who is now in the care of Gerard Butler, and at 12/1 with Bluesq the five-year-old is well worth supporting. The son of Red Ransom was held up well off the pace in the totesport International Stakes last time out at Ascot where patient waiting tactics were employed because of connections' doubts with regard to his ability to see out the stiff seven furlongs at the Berkshire venue. However, in hindsight, John Egan probably left him with too much to do. Coming from well off the pace in a race like the International is hard enough, even without factoring in the inevitable traffic problems, so Bayeux deserves plenty of credit for staying on to eventually finish fifth, beaten just two lengths behind winner Dabbers Ridge. On his penultimate start, Bayeux displayed a potent turn of foot when beating Machinist by three parts of a length in the valuable John Smith's Scottish Stewards Cup Handicap at Hamilton where he was ridden more prominently. He is just 5lb higher than for that win now, which looks lenient considering that Machinist went onto win a mightily competitive dash at Ascot and the fourth in that Hamilton race, Fantasy Believer, cosily scored at Goodwood's Glorious meeting. Back over six furlongs, with a strong pace guaranteed, Bayeux should go very close indeed on Saturday. Although Mutamared's effort in the Stewards' Cup was a solid one, perhaps the most eyecatching was the performance of the eventual fourth home, Excusez Moi, who had nowhere to go a furlong out and was sharply switched to find daylight before finishing like a train, failing by under a length to get up. Clive Brittain's charge is clearly in the form of his life, and the form of his previous effort at Haydock where he was a short head second to the classy Somnus also looked like strong form, as the third there, Kodiac, has since gone on to run excellent races in defeat in Group races. But the four-year-old isn't easy to win with - he's just won one of 17 career starts, which was in a Class 5 maiden - so he's far more likely to finish thereabouts rather than prevailing, a remark which also applies to Obe Gold, who has the ability to go well in a race of this nature off his current mark but is becoming most frustrating. Idle Power scored at Windsor last time and there's no reason to suspect he won't run his race, while last year's winner Ice Plant is another that merits respect, along with stablemate Traytonic and the David Barron-trained duo, Rising Shadow and Skhilling Spirit. Verdict - 1pt win Bayeux @ 12/1 (Bluesq) & 0.50pts e/w Desert Commander @ 16/1 (VCbet)