Midnight Parkes may never win as many races as Chaplins Club, but he has every chance of landing the annual event named after the long-since retired sprinter at Pontefract tomorrow.

A £10,000 prize is up for grabs in this five-furlongs dash, which honours the prolific winning achievements of Chaplins Club, owned by Peter Savill and trained at Stillington by David Chapman.

Midnight Parkes appears to have an affinity with Pontefract. Both his career wins have been achieved on the course, the first as a three-year-old when trained by Michael Jarvis and his latest coming on his most recent outing.

Now with Eric Alston, Midnight Parkes had run several sound races in defeat before last month's success, which saw him battle home in gritty style. Matthew Henry again takes the mount tomorrow, hoping for an encore.

The meeting opens with the latest round of the Bollinger Champagne Challenge Series Handicap for male amateur riders.

The in-form Realism promises to be hard to beat in the hands of Lee Newnes, whose father Billy was a top-flight professional jockey in Britain a decade or so ago.

Rajam is not the easiest of horses to win with, but David Nicholls' six-year-old has been running well in defeat lately and deserves another winning turn in the Tony Sykes Sound Handicap.

The nap vote is awarded to Reqqa in the Birdsall Farms Maiden Stakes.

Mark Johnston's two-year-old showed his inexperience when finishing sixth on his debut at York last month. Sure to have benefitted from that outing, he can promote himself to the number one slot tomorrow.

At Newcastle, where the entire meeting is devoted to raising funds for NSPCC, Spinnakers Girl can finally open her scoring in the Mowden Park Estates Nursery Handicap.

Trained by John Weymes at Middleham, Spinnakers Girl has turned in two solid perfprmances recently and looks capable of winning a handicap of this calibre.

Wednesday's tips:

Pontefract

2-20 Realism, 2-50 Dagola, 3-20 Midnight Parkes, 3-50 Rajam, 4-20 Reqqa (NAP), 4-50 Capped For Victory, 5-20 Extra Cover

Newcastle

2-30 Rigonza, 3-00 Spinnakers Girl, 3-30 Spy King, 4-00 Parisian Playboy, 4-30 Sherwood Forest, 5-00 Rock Lobster

Tomorrow's other meetings are at Brighton, Kempton and Yarmouth.

Updated: 12:21 Tuesday, August 03, 2004