Not a bad little race this and the three to concentrate on look to be Ballystone, Clear Dawn and Business Class, with marginal preference going to Clear Dawn in receipt of a stone from the topweight. Trainer Malcolm Jefferson has not enjoyed the best of campaigns thus far, but the last two or three weeks have seen an upturn in fortunes and one example of that was Clear Dawn's course and distance win by 11 lengths from the useful Chergan last time out. Upped 9lb as a result of that success, he will clearly have more on his plate here, but now that the yard has run into some form we will back him to follow up here, with conditions underfoot again to his liking. Topweight Ballystone looks to be in the grip of the handicapper at present, but he is another to have won from Chergan around this course and distance and is 10lb higher than when doing so 12 months ago. Although he does go on fast ground, he would surely be better is there was cut here and as his trainer Len Lungo has gone on record as saying he is slow, it seems unlikely that he will be up to the task here, but a place appears likely. Business Class has been in fair form of late, loves fast ground and is still on a handy mark, but this trip will fully stretch his stamina and on what we have seen he should struggle to get home, so we are quite happy to side with the percentage choice, Clear Dawn.
