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IIT'S sometimes easier to take the measure of the year's crop of horses-to-follow books once the season has got under way.

It's certainly easier to perceive the value in Mark Howard's hardy stayer, Ahead On The Flat, if, a few days after doing your dough on combination forecasts in the Lockinge, you read Luca Cumani's fairly expansive and glowing comments on the hitherto unnoticed (by you, at least) Salselon and realise, with hindsight, that an Exacta of pounds 519.60 could have saved you from a day of penury and then some.

It's gems like these, from the extensive trainer interviews, that make Howard's book so consistently useful and it is as professional a production as ever. One might quibble that, although Attraction's Classic chances are highlighted strongly, there's not a mention of either Haafhd or Bachelor Duke - and that a couple of the `Unraced Three-year-olds' actually raced as two-year-olds - but that's hardly the point. Howard can't be all-seeing and Ahead On The Flat is one of the best of its type. Available from Mark Howard Publications, 69 Fairgarth Drive, Kirkby Lonsdale, Carnforth, Lancashire LA6 2FB for pounds 5.99 including postage and packing in UK, pounds 7 Ireland and overseas.

IMarten Julian's Dark Horses Annual, as it happens, also includes Salselon among his usual intriguing collection of selections and is on the shelves - or rather the internet (pounds 15 from www.martenjulian.com).

IThe 20th edition of Two-Year-Olds by Steve Taplin (Portway Press, pounds 7.99) is out, and can be ordered from Timeform (telephone [phone] or via www.timeform.com).