Cumbria should improve for his recent Haydock debut and is chosen to beat Gold Card and Turtle Dancer. Mark Johnston's filly is superbly bred by Singspiel out of a Top Ville mare and showed plenty of promise when third behind the Michael Jarvis trained Dallool, going down by just three lengths. She has plenty of scope for progression and can land this before stepping up in class. Gold Card looks to be the main threat to the selection having chased home Caspian Dusk at Southwell in March. Turtle Dancer had some decent form in Ireland but hasn't raced since September 2002, when well beaten in a Sedgefield hurdle. Pattern Man completes the line-up and has shown very little in three outings. So with so many doubts about the opposition Cumbria does appear to be a good thing to lose her maiden tag.
