Pips Song can spring a surprise in the Tote Jackpot Rated Stakes at Salisbury today. The son of Pips Pride has a very different profile to that of most of his rivals in this six-furlong contest.

A progressive and lightly-raced performer, he picked up a couple of decent early-season prizes - a competitive handicap on the Fibresand at Wolverhampton and a real slog through bottomless ground at Leicester - before being rested for more than four months.

The name of Jon Scargill may not be on the lips of most punters but the Newmarket trainer is a good placer of his small string and the booking of top apprentice Neil Pollard looks highly significant. From the foot of the weights and with a draw in stall 16 looking favourable, a big run by Pips Song is expected.

Earlier, Island Sound can take the first division of the EBF Marlborough Maiden Stakes for trainer David Elsworth. The gelding made his debut in a hot-looking novice stakes at Sandown last month, finishing a highly-respectable four-and-a-half-lengths fourth to Adilabad. He should improve for that experience and, being a son of Turtle Island, handle soft ground.

Warring Kingdom has won three on the bounce and his successful sequence may well continue in the Newcastle Stayers' Handicap at the Gosforth Park track. The winner of a maiden handicap at Carlisle in August, John Berry's charge has improved in leaps and bounds, beating older rivals in two contests at Musselburgh.

Brighton completes the action today where the Henry Cecil-trained Flame Cutter can capture the first division of the Half Century Maiden Stakes.