DUTCH Masterpiece can get Ascot racegoers off to a smashing start on Shergar Cup day.

The unique event on the racing calendar is often more associated with theatre rather than sport, but the six-year-old sprinter can nonetheless play a leading role in the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup Dash.

Gary Moore’s inmate has hitherto been disappointing this term, but a closer look at his run at Glorious Goodwood is quite revealing.

He could only finish 11th in a tight five-furlong handicap, but that was partly due to him having made a slow start.

Dutch Masterpiece was also hampered inside the final furlong once he had started to accelerate, after which his jockey allowed him to come home in his own time.

It says a lot about how his summer has gone that his Goodwood performance was probably the best of his year to date.

Be that as it may, these sort of sprinters invariably hit peaks and troughs and perhaps now is the time to get involved again.

Dutch Masterpiece would probably not appreciate the ground getting too much quicker, but his two previous runs at Ascot strengthen the case for the defence as he won a listed race over this course and distance last October.

Just as importantly is the fact he was touched off by the shortest of heads in this race 12 months ago, with the winner, Secretinthepark, in receipt of 7lb.

The Group Three-winning son of Dutch Art returns for another go off exactly the same mark yet should be available at fair odds, such has been his recent travails on a racecourse.

Balty Boys’ claims in the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup Mile are probably even cloudier, but he still rates as an interesting candidate at what is likely to be a very big price. Brian Ellison’s seven-year-old has had a frankly awful season, but he has been set some stiff enough tasks and will appreciate this return to a mile.

He also enjoys himself at Ascot – as evidenced by his head defeat in the International Stakes last July.

Balty Boys’ demise has seen his mark slip to 98, which is some 14lb lower than when he snared a Group Three at Haydock last September.

That in itself has to be taken into account with this in mind, while his trainer, who worked wonders at the Galway Festival last week, will still feel confident the seven-year-old is more than capable in his sort of company.

Scottish missed Goodwood with a pulled muscle, but plan B can prove fertile terrain in the Betfred Rose of Lancaster Stakes at Haydock.

Trainer Charlie Appleby has grand plans of an Australian adventure for this four-year-old, who looked really smart in the mile-and-a-quarter Steventon Stakes at Newbury last month.

Runner-up to King George hero Highland Reel in the Gordon Stakes at Goodwood last season, there is an awful lot more to come from this one.

SELECTIONS

ASCOT: 1.15 DUTCH MASTERPIECE (NAP), 1.45 Notarised, 2.20 Darshini, 2.55 Balty Boys, 3.30 Full Court Press, 4.05 Muhadathat.

AYR: 5.40 Poor Duke, 6.10 Kings Gift, 6.40 Mime Dance, 7.10 Tricky Dicky, 7.40 Soul Brother, 8.10 Carnageo, 8.40 Gunner Lindley.

HAYDOCK: 2.00 Lat Hawill, 2.35 Dance King, 3.10 Mix And Mingle, 3.45 Scottish, 4.15 Gershwin, 4.45 Normandy Barriere, 5.15 Outrage.

LINGFIELD: 5.20 Twobeelucky, 5.50 Torquay, 6.20 Flawed Diamond, 6.50 Dourado, 7.20 Arctic Flower, 7.50 Menai, 8.20 One Big Surprise.

NEWMARKET: 2.05 Spatial, 2.40 Prerogative, 3.15 Easy Victory, 3.50 Passover, 4.25 Farlow, 5.00 Bahaarah, 5.30 Planetoid.

REDCAR: 2.15 Bismarck The Flyer, 2.50 Percy Verence, 3.25 Imperial State, 4.00 Hard To Handel, 4.35 Mr Lucas, 5.05 Highland Acclaim, 5.35 Cavalieri.

DOUBLE: Dutch Masterpiece and Easy Victory.