'He'll go for the Dante and the Derby - and I think he'll be underestimated'

We've become used to Mark Johnston setting the pace in the trainers' championship at this time of year but, even with that in mind, the current form of the Middleham yard is been something to behold.

Johnston has already surpassed 50 winners for the year, those victories coming at a strike-rate of 25 per cent and an extremely healthy level-stakes profit, and assistant Charlie Johnston is very happy with how things are going.

"We've started off strongly this campaign," he says. "The good horses who have been out so far have either won or run well and it looks as though we've got a lot of the kind we enjoy and excel with, the middle-distance-plus three-year-old handicappers, of whom quite a few can climb through the ranks significantly.