Kristin Stubbs's star Soie D'Leau earns a welcome breather

Already a winner at Newmarket and Haydock this season, the four-year-old knuckled down to beat Irish challenger and 10-1 co-favourite Tithonus by a short head under Tony Hamilton at Town Moor.

Stubbs said: “He has an unbelievable attitude – he’s so tough. He’s been on the go all year, he goes on any ground and he’s just been amazing.

“He’s taken us to Newmarket and Goodwood and ran at the Curragh last time. To have runners at the big tracks on a Saturday is great.

“He’s won three big ones for us this year now and the plan before this was to give him a break. Dubai is tempting, but he has had a long year, so we’ll see. Whatever happens, he’ll have a month off. I think he could improve again.”

Mark Johnston hopes Masham Star can keep improving after the two-year-old won Doncaster’s Saint Gobain Nursery under former Scottish National-winning rider PJ McDonald.

“We always thought he was a nice horse,” said the Middleham trainer after this emphatic win.

“He’s ran in the Chesham at Royal Ascot, he’s been to Turkey and we’ve campaigned him at quite a high level. He got the seven furlongs well. There was a bit of a doubt about that as he was a tearaway earlier in the year. He picked up nicely.”