York-based jockey Robert Winston, who rides in the 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket on Sunday, can prove himself in good form ahead of his Classic bid by scoring at Redcar tomorrow.

He teams-up with Mecca's Mate, and this recent Musselburgh winner is napped to follow-up in the £10,000 Spring Fillies' Handicap over five furlongs.

Trained at Scorton, North Yorkshire, by David Barker, a talented handler of sprinters, Mecca's Mate held the whip hand on her latest start.

Although meeting the runner-up La Vie Est Belle on 4lb worse terms tomorrow, she can confirm the form.

Bigger dangers may be Baron Rhodes, sure to be all the better for her recent Thirsk outing, and Wunderbra, who finished only one place behind Mecca's Mate at Wolverhampton last month.

I think that Mecca's Mate can fulfil the potential she showed at Musselburgh by winning tomorrow.

Winston will ride Magical Romance in Sunday's 1,000 Guineas. The Brian Meehan-trained filly provided Winston with his first Group 1 race winner when landing the Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket last autumn.

Andrew Mullen, who is apprenticed to Hambleton trainer Kevin Ryan, has good prospects of winning the April Showers Handicap tomorrow on Charmatic, trained by Jeremy Glover at Worksop.

Mullen was in the saddle when Charmatic won at Southwell last week. He rode a fine race on the four-year-old, seizing the initiative from a long way out after a slow early gallop.

The Carlsberg Redcar Straight Mile Championship Handicap, a qualifier for a final at the end of the season, has attracted a decent field.

The pick of the runners looks to be the John Gosden-trained Bureaucrat, who has run respectably in maiden company and looks well treated on his handicap debut.

Tomorrow's tips

Redcar

2.20 Ryedale Ovation, 2.50 Blades Boy, 3.20 Bureaucrat, 3.50 Candleriggs, 4.20 Mecca's Mate (Nap), 4.50 Topatoo, 5.20 Charmatic.

Southwell

2.30 Arkadian Blues, 3.00 Fasylitator, 3.30 Bird Over, 4.00 Headland, 4.30 Chatshow, 5.00 Dan's Heir.

Tomorrow's other race meetings are at Hereford (afternoon, National Hunt), Kelso (evening, National Hunt) and Lingfield (evening, Flat, on all-weather track).

Today's Exeter meeting, which had been in doubt following heavy rain, went ahead after the course passed an inspection this morning.

Updated: 10:47 Wednesday, April 27, 2005