All eyes will be on the Blanchford Building Supplies Oxfordshire Gold Cup which gets under way with the opening heats on Tuesday.

None more so than Reading trainer Bob Gilling, whose track specialist Brickfield Class will be among the early frontrunners.

Gilling, who shortly will join a number of trainers from the doomed Reading track seeking pastures new, was very satisfied with Class's victory on Tuesday.

"We will be back next week for the Gold Cup," he assured me.

No one would dare to write off Brickfield, despite an attractive line-up which is sure to test the best. His record is second to none at Oxford.

He boasts an 80 per cent strike rate, having won seven of his nine opens here over the last year or so.

However, the dog likely to head the market is Ernie Gaskin's Cobra Striking, following his fourthplace in the final of the Yarmouth Derby.

Locally, the Maurice Massey trained Positive Step is back after a rest and showed his class with a 26.96sec spin on Monday.

You can be sure he will improve on that.

There is also Angie KIbble's flyer Isle Of Tara and probably a couple more from her kennel.

Paddy Curtin's Farloe Ferdinand, now recovered after being laid low, gives the big race a miss to take in an open at Monmore next week.

The 16-runner event has attracted 38 entries which left the racing office with a big headache of who to include in the opening heats.