Johnston holds the trump cards in valuable handicap

Stars Over The Sea ran a fine race at York last time and can get back to winning ways 4.30 Haydock

Just about everything went against him at the Ebor meeting: he was prominent and pulling quite hard in a race in which the other principals all came from further back and was squeezed late on. Before that he had been an impressive winner at Pontefract and can be taken as still on the up.

This field is smaller, providing the possibility of an easier lead, and not as deep. Important Message is an obvious danger, placed from the same mark in a good race when last seen a year ago. However, given the well-documented issues in the Saeed Bin Suroor yard, this hardly feels like the right time to plough into one of his returning from a lay-off. The selection's stablemate Beaverbrook could prove just as big a threat.