Riggins has looked a seriously progressive individual this season and can continue on an upward curve in the 50th John Smith's Cup at York.
Riggins has looked a seriously progressive individual this season and can continue on an upward curve in the 50th John Smith's Cup at York.
Every man and his dog wagered on him making a winning comeback at Newmarket in May, but he failed to get any sort of a run and passed the post eighth of the 12 runners without having had a race.
He managed to gain some compensation when bolting up at Goodwood last time and it could be there is even more to come now he tackles a mile and a quarter for the first time.
His trainer Luca Cumani is a master at lining one up for the big handicaps and, in Riggins, he looks to have a horse capable of making his mark at a higher level.
Cesare ran a fantastic race to fill the runner-up spot in the Queen Anne last month and the totesport.com Summer Mile Stakes at Ascot looks his for the taking.
James Fanshawe's charge has won four times over this course and distance, including victory in this Group Two heat two years ago. Cesare was having his first outing in the best part of the year in the Royal meeting's curtain-raiser and he put up arguably a career-best effort to chase home a race-fit Paco Boy.
He ought to strip fitter now and, with conditions right up his street, it would be a major surprise if he is not there or thereabouts at the finish.
Fanshawe's Alsace Lorraine is slowly creeping up the weights but she could still be one step ahead of the assessor in the Norman Court Stud Fillies' Handicap. The four-year-old failed to cut much ice in three maiden starts last season but won cosily off a mark of 73 on her return to action. A 3lb rise did not stop her going in again at Doncaster and she looks set to give her able trainer a double on the card.
Borderlescott has again been running consistently well in good company all season and can make the most of a drop in class in the toteswinger City Wall Stakes at Chester.
Nina Rose has shown enough ability on her first couple of outings to suggest she is capable of getting off the mark in the EBF Maiden Fillies' Stakes at Nottingham, while Hamilton's totesport Claiming Stakes should go the way of Lucayan Dancer.
Richard Hannon's Lean Machine bumped into an exciting looking colt when second on his debut at Newmarket and he has been found the perfect opportunity to go one better in the EBF Bathwick Tyres Maiden Stakes at Salisbury.
Sunday sees Sariska bid for a Classic double in the Darley Irish Oaks at the Curragh, but Dermot Weld's Grace O'Malley can put a spanner in the works at a decent price.
The daughter of Refuse To Bend had a few useful types well beaten when making a winning debut over seven furlongs at this track in September and she clearly thrived over the winter months.
n Johnny Murtagh will have to sit out part of yet more major meetings after receiving a four-day careless riding ban at Newmarket.
The suspension is imposed on July 24 and from 26-28, meaning he will miss the first day of Glorious Goodwood and two of the three days of the King George meeting - but not the big race itself.
This follows bans for two days of Royal Ascot as well as the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown.
The Irishman was riding Emperor Claudius in the Meydan Superlatives Stakes when the stewards found him to have interfered with rival Silenceofthewind.
