Auxerre on course for tilt at Lincoln

Godolphin’s lightly-raced performer Auxerre is among 56 horses left in at the five-day stage for the Unibet Lincoln at Doncaster on Saturday. The exciting four-year-old, trained by Charlie Appleby, heads the ante-post market for the famous one-mile handicap that heralds the start of the British Flat season, despite having just had four career starts, winning the last three.

His last two wins were on all-weather tracks at Chelmsford and Kempton, with his runs on grass at Newmarket and Haydock being on good to firm ground. Though conditions at Doncaster were described as good to soft on Monday, clerk of the course Roderick Duncan expects the going to dry out to good or even faster by Saturday.