Keen Hands can give unheralded trainer Norma Macauley a deserved place in the spotlight today.
He has a fine chance of lifting division two of the day's richest race, the £7,500-added Tote Exacta 1-2 Stakes at Southwell.
Though she may not make the headlines very often, Mrs Macauley is very much a force to be reckoned with on the all-weather and has sent out nearly 60 winners at Southwell and sister track Wolverhampton in the past five years.
Keen Hands has more than played his part in the stable success story, contributing four wins on the two fibresand courses in 1999.
He launched 2000 with a career-best effort at Southwell, scoring by a comfortable length and three quarters from Sand Hawk and Best Quest - who have underlined the strength of the form by winning three races between them since.
Little should be read into the four-year-old's ninth place in the All-Weather Trophy Final at Lingfield - he has never thrived on Equitrack and was up against it after a modest start.
Returned to a happier hunting ground today Keen Hands can strike again.
Stable-companion Elton Ledger could well complete a double by defying the years in the Silver Ice Selling Stakes.
The 11-year-old knows the Southwell winner's enclosure almost as well as he knows Mrs Macauley's Melton Mowbray stable, after no fewer than 15 course victories to date.
He looked as though there was at least one more win still in him when runner-up in a claimer on his first run of the year a fortnight ago.
First division of the Tote Exacta 1-2 Stakes should go to Telecaster.
The improving four-year-old made a highly impressive handicap debut at Wolverhampton last week, trotting up by five lengths, and has clearly been underassessed.
Over jumps, Martin Pipe's rare visit to North Yorkshire should pay off with victory in the Wetherby Millennium Stand Novices' Chase.
His Galant Moss was a smart hurdler and would not be tried over fences had he not recovered from what ailed him when he was pulled up on his reappearance.
