The early favourite is the hat-trick-seeking Skye Breeze, who will find this a lot tougher off a higher mark than when winning a couple of weaker handicaps since returning from his last break.
The first came in a basement Class 6 contest at Wolverhampton a week before Christmas, when he beat six lower-rated rivals by a length, and he followed that up by winning a handicap over today's trip, but he had very little to beat once the very short-priced favourite massively underperformed.
The potential value created elsewhere brings in Charlie Johnston's four-year-old filly, Suffrajet, for whom this combination of a drop in grade and a stiffer test looks ideal at this stage.
As a two-year-old, Suffrajet won her maiden over a galloping extended mile on testing ground at Nottingham, out-staying the likes of John Gosden's Yummylicious, who is now rated 89.
She also finished more than four lengths in front of her own stablemate, World Without Love, who was recently seen winning a 14-furlong handicap at Wolverhampton.
16:00 (Newcastle) Suffrajet
With that filly now rated 75, Suffrajet is potentially very well-treated off her current mark of 77, and is still very lightly-raced in this sphere, with her only all-weather runs coming on her two latest starts.
In the first of them, she was beaten only 1.5 lengths over this 12-furlong trip when trying to make all at Lingfield, which is the quickest of all the synthetic venues.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, she was beaten for a bit of finishing speed on that occasion, but she wasn't beaten by much and it was her all-weather debut, plus it came in a higher-graded Class 4 handicap off two pounds higher than today.
Having been beaten for finishing speed, it was clear that a slower surface was required, so she was sent to Southwell for another Class 4 handicap just before Christmas, but the drop back in trip wasn't in her favour and she only really started motoring in the closing stages.
Nevertheless, she proved that she handles Tapeta and she caught the eye in the way she stayed on from well off the pace. This extra distance on a much more testing Tapeta track looks ideal, particularly as she drops down into Class 5 company at the same time.
Apart from the joint-top weight, Legendary Day, today's opposition is basically lower-tier Class 5 standard, and she could well have too much for them up the finishing hill under Jack Mitchell, who has ridden two winners and a second from only four bookings for Charlie Johnston so far.
Of the others, the aforementioned Legendary Day should also go very well just a week after his near-miss at Kempton, where he stayed the 12-furlong trip well under the same rider, Ryan Sexton, and it looks significant that his last win came on the uphill track at Leicester.
He has a consistent profile in this sphere (figures 44322), including being placed over this trip in Class 4 off three pounds higher than this, so although he will have to prove his effectiveness on Tapeta, he is a very lively player in what is only a moderate Class 5.
