Chrysander Tops William Hill Lincoln Weights

Chrysander (9st 10lb) tops the weights for the first major contest of the 2006 Flat season, the £100,000 William Hill Lincoln, run up the straight mile at Redcar on Saturday, March 25, details of which are revealed today, Wednesday, January 18, 2006.

Mick Channon´s charge was beaten less than a length when fourth in the Group Two Prix Eugene-Adam at Maisons-Laffitte last season and ended 2005 with a victory in a decent conditions race at Nottingham in November.

The two Irish-trained entries, Tommy Stack´s Tolpuddle (9st 9lb), a dual Listed winner, and the Tom Hogan-trained Common World (9st 8lb), third in the 2005 Lincoln, are next in the list followed by the 2004 victor, Babodana (9st 7lb).

Sir Michael Stoute, successful with Stream Of Gold in 2005, is represented this year by the current ante-post favourite Notnowcato (9st 2lb) and also King´s Majesty (8st 3lb).

Other horses prominent in the ante-post market with William Hill include the John Gosden-trained Stronghold (9st 3lb) and Cesare (8st 9lb) from the James Fanshawe stable.

One horse definitely being aimed at the contest, run for this year only at Redcar while its usual venue Doncaster undergoes redevelopment, is the Alan Swinbank-trained Hartshead (8st 7lb), who was last seen out when landing a decent handicap at York in October. The six-year-old won two races last term over a mile with the other victory coming in the historic Carlisle Bell in June.

Swinbank revealed: 'We are definitely planning to run Hartshead in the William Hill Lincoln. I´m happy with his weight of 8st 7lb and as long as we have a straight run through to the race with no setbacks he´ll go to Redcar.'

The North Yorkshire-based handler continued: 'He´s back in now and looking a million dollars and hopefully we can get him there on the day. He´s a lovely horse and was a bit unlucky a couple of times last year. We were planning to go to Dubai for the Carnival but he was rated a couple of pounds too low to get in there.

'I may give him a prep run at Cagnes-sur-Mer in France over a mile on the sand if there´s nothing suitable over here - all options are open at present.

'I think a mile is his best trip now and decent ground, on the fast side of good, suits best. Even if there was some cut in the ground on the day, we´d be keen to give it a go as long as he was 100% fit and ready for action.'

The first forfeit stage for the William Hill Lincoln is next week on Tuesday, January 24 with a second forfeit stage on Tuesday, March 7.