WHILE some trainers specialise in producing horses to win Classics, others seem adept at placing them to effect in handicaps.

John Dunlop is one of the few in his line of work who can accurately be described as having a foot firmly planted in both camps.

The 2,000 Guineas is the only one of the five Classics to have evaded Dunlop but the Arundel trainer also has an uncanny knack of encouraging his handicappers into winning sequences.

A case in point is Saleemah, who can complete a hat trick of wins by landing the Tote Bookmakers Handicap at Salisbury today.

The Store Bird filly did not race as a juvenile but has made the frame on all bar one of her six starts, including victories on her last two outings.

After a string of promising efforts she was sent off the 1 to 2 favourite for a maiden event over a mile at Bath, where she had just the two opponents.

She thumb nosed the pair with a 12-length thrashing, galloping further away from the three-furlong pole, before following up in a handicap over an extended seven furlongs at Lingfield.

This time faced by four rivals the chestnut needed merely to be pushed out to beat Farmost by 3 1/2 lengths.

She was value for a couple of lengths more than the official margin and is clearly still on the upgrade.

Saleemah encounters similar conditions today to those she had at Lingfield and is confidently expected to make it three wins from her last three runs.

Beverley honours its best-known course specialist by staging the Rapid Lad Handicap over a mile and a quarter.

David Nicholls, who rode John Spearing's veteran to most of his successes there, can produce Hazard A Guess to win this year's renewal.

Winner of the Rosebery Handicap at Beverley in April, Hazard A Guess regained winning form at Newcastle at the beginning of the month, getting up on the post to pip Troubadour Song by a neck.

A reproduction of that performance would see the six-year-old go very close.

Welshpool trainer David Evans has been in a rich vein of form over the last fortnight and his Superlative filly Perfect Bliss can win the third race of her juvenile season by landing the Sidegate Peugeot Motors Nursery Handicap at Yarmouth.