York's Ebor festival is on the horizon - but do we have a star in the making in the Hungerford at Newbury?

As appetisers for the main dish go, there are very many worse ways to warm up for four days of York's Ebor meeting than Saturday's blend of Group-race action at Newbury and the Curragh, plus the traditional cavalry charge that is the Great St Wilfrid Handicap at Ripon. 

Before our attention turns to the Knavesmire, where many of the big names involved on Saturday, such as Aidan O'Brien, Oisin Murphy and Billy Loughnane, will no doubt play a major part as we head towards a championships-deciding autumn, we have a potential star making an all-important first step into stakes company after cutting a swathe through the handicap ranks.

More Thunder attempts to maintain his upward progression in Newbury's Group 2 Visit Malta Hungerford Stakes, and while trainer William Haggas is the first to admit this assignment is a very different ballgame to winning the Bunbury Cup off a perch of 98, he is as fascinated as the rest of us to see how his protege gets on.