Daryl Carter's Tips: Chance Merv 16/1 to improve returned to the flat

• Merveillo is interesting back on the level in cheek-pieces

• A stiff test of stamina will suit

• Watch out for NRs at Goodwood with mixed signals about the going

15:20 Goodwood - Back Merveillo @ 16/117.00 0.5pt e/w

It's not a day I want to get too deeply involved. There will be better opportunities for me later in the week. The current ground description at Goodwood is soft, good to soft in places or good to soft, soft in places, depending on where you look.

I find that very hard to believe, given I live 20 minutes down the road and have been cooking like a rotisserie chicken in my office for the past three days, so expect non-runners aplenty and misinformation.

I want to take a small chance with one who will be okay with what the ground is doing. I have been waiting for Merveillo - 16/117.00 on the Betfair Sportsbook - to return to the level, and now he does, having proven, without any shadow of a doubt, that he is not a hurdler.

However, he was a reasonably useful three-time flat winner in France for Christophe Ferland, which included a Listed victory at Toulouse, and he offered plenty of promise in two flat starts for this yard last spring.

The first of those saw him well held by this year's Royal Ascot winner Ahorsewithnoname, but he shaped with plenty of credit as he tried to come from off an outrageously slow gallop.

It was the same story at Haydock as he tried to come from off the pace, having travelled strongly, but he was caught out as the pace lifted and finished with running left in sixth when beaten only two lengths.

The bare form of his two runs in Britain leaves him little to find with his rivals, and the handicapper has relented seven pounds since then, and now he has the headgear in play (he wore blinkers in France for all three victories).

If it is slower, the ground should prove no issue, but the quicker, the better, and there's a good chance we have not seen the best of him in this sphere with an unexposed profile, and today's race should provide more of a stamina test that he seems to need desperately.

He is worth taking a small chance with in an open contest at 16/117.00 or bigger off of this rating of 89 with doubts over one or two others.

Temportize and Grand Providence are respected, although I expect the former to be a NR, and the money for Vino Victrix is also interesting. At the same time, Novel Legend may be best on soft ground, and I worry about this track for him.

Pons Aelius returns to the scene of his last victory and represents a yard that has won this a few times in recent years. He has been consistent rather than progressive and is vulnerable to something but should be on the scene.