Dave Nevison's York tips: Ebor Festival day one bets

The big names are out in force at this week's Sky Bet Ebor Festival at York, although Paddington seems to have frightened off a lot of rivals in the Juddmonte International!

I am going to have plenty of opportunities to find one of the handicap winners this week and, hopefully, one of these might get us off to a decent start to a great week. If you're not heading to the Knavesmire this week, you can enjoy every race live on Racing TV. Best of luck!

There is any amount of pace in this race, with front runners drawn across the track, and this traditional burn up is as tough as ever to solve.

Ventura Express is possibly not ideally drawn in stall 16, but should travel well in behind the front runners, and if he goes as well as he did on his penultimate start here, he will go very close.

He didn’t quite manage to get his head in front in that 18-runner handicap, going down by a neck, but that was over the minimum trip, and the extra half a furlong here may make a big difference.

It is difficult to find a well handicapped “blot” in this race and Ventura Express has been rated within a couple of pounds of this mark for two seasons, but when things go right for him, he invariably goes close, and his chance seems underrated by the market.

Connor Beasley is back on board this massively improved stayer here, and the combination have a great chance of extending their unbeaten run to five this season.

Robert Johnson is now 29lb higher than when he won at Catterick in April and while he has gone up 4lb for getting beat last time out in the marathon at Goodwood (Paula Muir did nothing wrong on him there), I believe that was a strong run against a very well-handicapped rival, so he has strong claims of defying the handipper oncer more here.

He has a course and distance win under his belt and his handler, Philip Kirby, has shown himself a master with handicap stayers on several occasions in the past.

I have a feeling there is a decent race in this filly and this handicap would certainly be a good start.

Cruise was very well punted when she was the first runner for her trainer back in April and she got badly hampered at a crucial time in that race, so supporters got their fingers badly burned.

However, she has won twice since; she landed a maiden in easy fashion when odds-on was impressive when always in control of a handicap at Newcastle last time out where she won with authority, despite the narrow margin.

She has not been seen since June but the market will no doubt tell us if she is fresh and well. I am hopeful that this fillies' handicap might be part of a plan by this promising young trainer, and a stepping stone to better things over 5f for Cruise.