De Sousa can help valerius progress

Paul Cole's two-year-old was seemingly not that well fancied for his racecourse introduction at Windsor, sent out as a 40-1 outsider.

But he bounced out of the stalls well and was soon making the running, only giving way in the closing stages. With the in-form Silvestre De Sousa in the saddle, a big run is on the cards.

Hitchens has been hinting for a while that another win may not be far away and he appears to have everything in his favour in the Whixley Stakes.

Although winless in 2010, he has run a couple of decent races and was a close sixth in last month's Great St Wilfrid at Ripon. Back to York where he has been placed twice before, Hitchens could well find his way back into the winner's enclosure.

Today's highlight is the Betfred Sprint Cup where Regal Parade, trained at Thirsk by Dandy Nicholls, bids to follow up his Stewards Cup triumph and win the Haydock feature for a second successive year.

It will not be easy; the high-quality field includes Yorkshire icon Borderlescott and Aidan O'Brien's Starspangledbanner, runner-up in last month's Nunthorpe Stakes at York.

It will be a busy afternoon for O'Brien. Fifteen minutes after the sprint, Rip Van Winkle, the recent winner of York's Juddmonte International, reappears in the Irish Champion Stakes.