Racing by Tom O'Ryan

Pipalong, unbeaten in two starts and successful on Knavesmire last month, is napped to give Great Habton trainer Tim Easterby his first Royal Ascot success tomorrow.

Easterby, who saddled two winners yesterday and whose horses are in dynamic form, bids for the prestigious £50,000 Queen Mary Stakes with Pipalong, who will relish the rain-softened ground.

A runaway winner on her debut at Ripon, Pipalong followed up at York when scoring by a neck from the highly-rated Bint Allayl, who went on to beat a useful field with consummate ease in the National Stakes at Sandown.

Bint Allayl, trained by Mick Channon, takes on Pipalong again tomorrow, but meets the Ryedale raider on 6lb worse terms than at York.

Kieren Fallon, the champion jockey, has the mount of Pipalong for the first time. Probably the best two-year-old filly to have been trained in the Malton area for many a year, she is strongly fancied to hit the bullseye.

Fallon can also take the opening honours aboard Bold Fact, trained by his boss Henry Cecil.

An unlucky loser of the Coventry Stakes at this meeting 12 months ago, Bold Fact developed into a high-grade juvenile and made a most impressive reappearance at Newmarket a month ago.

Tim Easterby is also strongly represented in the Royal Hunt Cup by For Your Eyes Only, a decisive winner of the Whitsun Cup at Sandown on his latest start. But Richard Fahey, Easterby's brother-in-law, has high hopes that Raheen will strike a telling blow in this one mile cavalry charge and turn the tables on For Your Eyes Only.

Raheen finished third in the Whitsun Cup, but met all sorts of trouble in the last two furlongs and would probably have made a race of it with For Your Eyes Only with a clear run. He gets the chance to avenge that defeat here, but has 30 other rivals to contend with as well in a typically wide-open Hunt Cup.

A good-value each-way bet in the featured £215,000 Coronation Stakes is Lady In Waiting, a dual-winner last season, who makes her reappearance in this Group 1 contest and will relish the soft ground.

Others to make a note of are Mark Johnston's York winner Sinon in the Queen's Vase and the smart Sabadilla in the Bessborough Handicap.

At Ripon's evening meeting, Marton Moss can lift the featured Norman Wells Memorial Challenge Trophy Handicap.

Tim Easterby's gelding ran a cracking race at York last Saturday to finish third to Friar Tuck in the valuable William Hill Trophy and did well to get close from a poor draw. Compensation awaits him tomorrow. Special-K (7.00) and Pistachio (7.30) are two other to note at Ripon.

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