Horses to follow: Chris Dixon's five recent eyecatchers

Trainer: Grant Tuer.

Abduction did well to overcome a wide trip from his outside draw at Catterick on Wednesday and looks like he’s capable of building on this return to form, with further successes close to hand.

In defeating an unpenalised runner-up, Master Richard, who was 8lbswell-in with course specialist Langholm back in third, this looks a good run on form and, the race was backed up by a good time figure.

Trainer: Jim Goldie.

Primo’s Comet was unfortunate not to add to his eight previous wins at Doncaster last week as he was inconvenienced by the winner coming across him, which halted his momentum at a crucial stage of the race.

Still able to run on, he only went down by a neck behind the in-form winner and recent efforts suggest Primo’s Comet is ready to take advantage of his current mark, especially if found a race at Musselburgh where he has a particularly good record.

Trainer: Ed Dunlop.

Haunted Dream was clearly well-fancied at Chester on Friday evening, but everything went wrong from an early stage as he stumbled leaving the stalls and was then caught very wide the whole way around.

He attempted to make up plenty of ground on the home turn and could’ve been excused for finishing very tired under the circumstances, but he still saw his race out fairly well behind a recent winner, who is going the right way.

This effort suggests it’s worth keeping faith with Haunted Dream a little longer yet.

Trainer: Andrew Balding.

Berkshire Breeze is yet to get his head in front despite having six attempts, but he is progressing nicely. At Ascot on Saturday for his handicap debut, he was only beaten in a tight finish by the progressive Bague D’Or, who is two from three this season and was victorious on his previous start.

Berkshire Breeze was asked to come from a shade further back than the winner, switching out to the centre in the straight before staying on to be beaten by just a head.

That duo pulled over a couple of lengths clear of Inverness, who in turn was clear of the remainder in what looked a competitive enough race on paper.

This was his first go over 14 furlongs, and he looks a strong stayer with more to come at the trip, so a race like the Melrose at York next month could be a suitable target.

Given his mark, though, connections have the possibility of finding something softer first.

Trainer: Tim Easterby.

Albegone shaped very well at Haydock last month and again ran a fine race in defeat off a falling mark at York last Friday. Dropped another pound in the weights for this solid effort, he’s now just a pound higher than for his win at Ayr earlier in the campaign plus is eligible for lesser races than he ran in here.

All three career wins have been gained in blinkers, rather than cheekpieces, and although effective in that less severe headgear, I think he’ll be of increased interest with blinkers back on.

The 7f maiden for two-year-olds on the Friday of Newmarket’s July Festival has a habit of throwing up good horses and proving strong form, and there’s every reason to expect that’s going to be the case again this year.

Won by John & Thady Gosden’s newcomer Epicteus, the well-bred Kingman colt impressed with the way he went through the race and won in the manner of a youngster who can develop into a pattern-class performer, as has been the case with so many previous winners of this contest.

With several other well-bred horses from top stables taking their chance and shaping with promise in a race where they recorded a decent time figure, I expect there will be lots of future winners coming from the contest.