Musselburgh races: This is Glenrowan Rose's time to bloom

Glenrowan Rose ran well for a long way in a major sprint at Haydock Park last weekend and looks set to bloom at Musselburgh this afternoon.
Keith DalgleishKeith Dalgleish
Keith Dalgleish

The East Lothian track stages an additional twilight fixture with a late afternoon start after Scottish racing lost four major days at Ayr and Hamilton through wet weather and Glenrowan Rose can star for the locals.

She is housed in the Lanarkshire yard of leading Scots trainer Keith Dalgleish and completed a hat-trick of victories at Catterick and Hamilton in late July and August before being pulled up at Pontefract after a problem at the start.

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The four-year-old had a six week break after that misfortune, so her latest run at Haydock will have helped her back to peak fitness and she has been runner-up on both her visits to this track.

I thought she did particularly well when bustling up Caspian Prince here almost exactly a year ago, as that rival is a cracking sprinter who went on to land a major prize in Ireland and who has won the celebrated Epsom Dash on three occasions and scored at Group Two level recently.

The EBF Musselburgh Fillies Sprint (5.10) is a £30,000 Listed event which has attracted some smart sprinters and Thesme has enough pace to lead this field and have a big say in proceedings.

But I expect Glenrowan Rose to stay with her and prove stronger in the closing stages to land the spoils.

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Danot has been beaten on 31 occasions since winning on this track three years ago, but it has not all been doom and gloom. The gelding has been runner-up six times and made the frame on several other occasions.

He has not run a bad race all year and was second on three successive occasions at Leicester, Wolverhampton and Catterick this summer and was far from disgraced when fifth in a big field at Redcar before a five weak break.

The five-year-old returned at Catterick a fortnight ago and looked the winner when hitting the front a quarter of a mile from home, but then “blew up” and weakened inside the final furlong.

He will be fitter now and gets the vote in the Get Daily Tips at RacingUK Handicap(6.10) which closes the seven race card.

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Royal Cosmic has yet to score in eleven starts, but would definitely have won an amateur riders event at Beverley recently but for hanging badly when leading inside the final furlong and he can open his account in the Bet at RacingUK Handicap (4.10).

He is a half-brother to four winners and is out of Cosmic Case who was a great favourite on this track where she registered 7 of her 14 career victories and former champion jockey Paul Hanagan takes over the steering, so the gelding can be expected to run straight and true this time.

Marchingontogether cost just £800 as a yearling but changing hands for a large sum after making a successful debut at Leicester in May and ran at Royal Ascot in the colours of Quatar Racing. The youngster was far from disgraced in finishing in midfield in the Windsor Castle Stakes, beaten just over seven lengths.

She was outpaced to halfway in that 5F event, but stayed on well and did not run again for three months, returning to action over 6F at Chelmsford recently where a wide draw did not help and she was beaten just over four lengths into sixth place.

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The filly was sent off favourite then and can recoup the losses over an additional furlong in the RacingUK.com Novice Auction Stakes (3.10) in which the trace conditions mean her low sales priced see her getting weight from all her rivals.

Selections: 3.10 Marchingontogether; 4.10 Royal Cosmic; 5.10 Glenrowan Rose; 6.10 Danot.

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