Donald McCain | John Smith's Northumberland Plate

Donald McCain | John Smith's Northumberland Plate. Donald McCain has high hopes Ile De Re will follow up his Chester Cup victory within the John Smith's Northumberland Plate at Newcastle on Saturday.

The six-year-old led home a notable one-two for the Cholmondeley trainer when foiling Overturn's commit to land back-to-back victories on the Roodee last month.

And he can currently bid to emulate Overturn who won the two-mile 'Pitmen's Derby' in 2010.

His run at Chester was his 1st since joining the McCain team from the Ian Williams stable.

"Obviously I hadn't had him long before Chester. it had been regarding 3 weeks and he came in nice nick from Ian Williams," McCain told At The Races.

"Since Chester this has been the target. Everything has gone smoothly.

"The ground goes to be in his favour, i do not see why the track should not suit and we're hoping for an enormous run.

"Overturn got the run of the race at Chester and everything visited arrange except for the bottom and this horse still managed to beat him."

Jockey Silvestre de Sousa is expecting an enormous run from the Mark Johnston-trained Gulf Of Naples, who he steered into fourth place behind his former stablemate color Vision within the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot.

"There's slightly additional to come back from him and he is getting to win an enormous race, I hope, this year," De Sousa said.

"He's a pleasant horse and has been improving all year.

"The Gold Cup was an enormous race, he ran a blinder however he didn't have a tough day out there.

"They went a pleasant even gallop, then we tend to quickened up and he finished the race nicely and quickened all the thanks to the road.

"I suppose he goes there with a decent probability. He goes on any reasonably ground. To me he'll win a gaggle race this year."

Richard Fahey was shocked to check his 3 entries - High workplace, Lexington Bay and Halla San - all build the cut.

It does, though, give a fitting finale to the career of Halla San.
The 10-year-old, who was beaten a head in the 2008 renewal by Arc Bleu, is likely to be retired after the race.

"It's a bit of shock that all three made the cut. They are all fine," said the Musley Bank trainer.

"We will probably retire Halla San after this race. This will be his last run, I'd say.

"We were contemplating retiring him the other day after he ran at Beverley.

"We thought the owners would get their money back if he didn't get in but when I saw he was going to make the cut we decided to let him run and see how he gets on.

"He got beat a head in the Plate once and we might just retire him after tomorrow."

Fahey is particularly keen on the chances of Lexington Bay in a race he has yet to win.

He said: "I'm delighted he's got in. He'll love the ground, he'll love the trip.

"This has been his long-term plan but we didn't think we'd done enough to get in it.

"He got struck into at Kempton and probably needed the run at York the other day.

"That will put him spot on and I'm looking forward to seeing him run."

And Fahey believes High Office, eighth 12 months ago, is capable of making his presence felt

"I hope he gets the trip in the ground," he said.

"He's been running OK, but it's going to be survival of the fittest."

Ed Dunlop hopes Lyric Street can see out on the trip in the testing conditions.

The four-year-old has just had the one run since joining Dunlop from Luca Cumani's stable and that was over a mile and a half.

"This will be his first time at the trip for us which we think he has been wanting," said the Newmarket trainer.

"We have been waiting for this race since he ran at York (in May).

"The ground is an unknown quantity and we are drawn wide (in 18).

"Time will tell whether they come up the stands rail which wouldn't make such a difference.

"He's well, but whether he'll handle the ground we'll have to see."

Another Newmarket trainer John Gosden runs the lightly-raced Palazzo Bianco.

"He looks well-in but whether he'll go in the ground is anybody's guess," said Gosden.

"I saw the rain there on Thursday and it was of biblical proportions.

"If he does handle it he's on a nice weight but it will only be the specialists that handle it.

"You don't train on it so you've no idea if they'll go on it."

Jim Goldie saddles Icon Dream, who will be having his first run since July when he was trained by David Simcock.

"This race has been the plan for Icon Dream and he's in good order. We thought he might be best fresh so we've been keeping him for this race," said Goldie.

"He's a class act and has been working well at home. He has a good draw, a good jockey and hopefully he's a player.

"The ground would be the worry. I don't know whether he'll want this ground, but then I don't think anyone would have asked for this ground ideally."

The Glasgow trainer is also not without hope for his other runner, Merchant Of Dubai.

"Merchant Of Dubai has a bit of form in soft ground and he's had his prep run, so hopefully that will have put him right for his race," he said.

"It's disappointing with how the ground has gone as I think it's going to be last man standing, but there's nothing we can do about it and we'll give it a go."

French Hollow made a belated seasonal debut only last Sunday when he finished second to Orsippus at Pontefract.

His trainer Tim Fitzgerald believes the seven-year-old can cope with two quick runs.

"I didn't think he'd handle the soft ground at Pontefract on Sunday, but he seemed to deal with it not too bad," said the North Yorkshire handler.

"The horse was ready to roll early on in the season, but he bruised a foot as we were about to run him.

"It just set us back a long way, but we were pleased with his run at Pontefract so it's fingers crossed. I hope we get a good run.

"I didn't think he'd get in the Plate, we were a long way off in the list, but the horse seems well.

"We've run him quick before and we got away with it. Let's hope we get away with it again."

Danny Tudhope rides the veteran Blue Bajan for David O'Meara and the jockey believes the 10-year-old still retains plenty of ability.

"He's been out of form this season and he has to bounce back," Tudhope said.

"We still think he's in good form at home, his work is good and he's as good as ever.

"We still think he's good enough to win a race like this. He's been running in better races than this so hopefully he'll run well and bounce back to form."