Nice One Clare has easier task

Nice One Clare is set for a change of pace when she runs at Lingfield today. The Pip Payne-trained four-year-old has run twice this season, coming a fast-finishing fifth to Harmonic Way in the Wokingham Handicap at Royal Ascot and third to Tayseer in the Bunbury Cup at Newmarket.

Nice One Clare is set for a change of pace when she runs at Lingfield today. The Pip Payne-trained four-year-old has run twice this season, coming a fast-finishing fifth to Harmonic Way in the Wokingham Handicap at Royal Ascot and third to Tayseer in the Bunbury Cup at Newmarket.

Payne runs the filly in a seven-runner classified stakes over seven furlongs and 140 yards, and reported: "She has come out of the Bunbury well."

Nice One Clare is 12-1 with the Tote for the International Handicap at Ascot a week on Saturday and is 10-1 joint-favourite with Ladbrokes for the Stewards' Cup at Goodwood seven days later.

Scandinavia is launching a three-pronged assault on the International Handicap. Swedish pair El Gran Lode and Senador and Danish horse Woven Roving were yesterday confirmed definite starters.

Yavana's Pace, Mutafaweq and Golden Snake were acceptors yesterday for the Group One WGZ Bank Deutschland Preis at Dusseldorf on Sunday. Fruits Of Love remains on target for the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot a week on Saturday after a light workout yesterday.

Racing in the Dubai next season will feature three new Classic races. The United Arab Emirates 2,000 Guineas over a mile on 1 March, the UAE 1,000 Guineas over a mile on 15 March, and the UAE Oaks over nine furlongs on 14 April.

Charlie Egerton has played down fears that a virulent equine disease has been introduced into Lambourn. The trainer isolated a horse imported from Ireland after it developed strangles, a disease which attacks a horses's larynx.

Tote chairman Peter Jones yesterday pleaded to the Chancellor Gordon Brown: "Losses are mounting month by month so please, please act before it is too late. Let the whole of racing and betting get behind the proposition to reduce betting taxes to a level which enables bookmakers in the UK to offer deduction-free betting to a local and world-wide market and continue to pay betting levies at a reasonable rate." Jones was speaking at the Tote annual general meeting in London.