Race is on among county’s leading trainers to land coveted York title

He has notched eight winners this year, the same number as Yorkshire rivals Mick Easterby and Kevin Ryan. Also in the mix for the award, sponsored by Ha Fox Jaguar, is Tim Easterby, who is on the seven-winner mark.

With £250,000 prize money over the two days, bringing York’s season total to £5m, York has, once again, attracted runners from the country’s major stables and Sir Henry Cecil hopes Jet Away can lift today’s Garbutt & Elliott Conditions Stakes.

The four-year-old has something of a patchy CV, having not gone on as hoped from a Lingfield conditions win in May.

However, there was little disgrace when Tom Queally’s mount finished second to the highly-rated Dubai Prince at Newbury, conceding 12lb to the winner.

Elsewhere on the card, Ed Walker’s Riggins got no kind of run in the Cambridgeshire but could gain some compensation in the Acorn Web Offset Stakes.

The seven-year-old has not tasted victory in 11 months but he has been set some stiff tasks in that time, including a trip to the Dubai Carnival and runs at Royal Ascot and in Group Two company. He is eminently capable of winning a race such as this, particularly as he barely had chance to hit top gear at Newmarket.

n John Oxx’s progressive young stayer Saddler’s Rock is likely to be supplemented for the Qipco British Champions Long Distance Cup at Ascot on Saturday week.

Oxx will make a final decision after he has worked the Doncaster Cup winner on Monday morning.

n Carlito Brigante warms up for a crack at the John Smith’s Hurdle at Wetherby later this month with a prep run on the Flat at Dundalk today.

The five-year-old, winner of the Coral Cup at Cheltenham, is among a field of 14 competing on the all-weather surface.

n Title-chasing Thirsk rider Silvestre de Sousa is expected to appeal the four-day suspension he was handed at Nottingham on Wednesday for careless riding.