Ebor Festival tips: Dave Nevison has three selections on Friday

This is definitely not the most competitive handicap ever run at the Ebor meeting, with several familiar exposed campaigners who might not be in the best of form.

The scene could be set perfectly for Emmet Mullins’s useful five-year-old to come back to winning form. It is quite easy to make excuses for his runs since he won at The Curragh last September.

He was hampered at the start when down the field in the Cambridgeshire and has run quite well in Listed and Group company on his three runs this season, doing well when outclassed in a Group 3 last time out.

He is back down in a handicap today and, with Tom Marquand booked, he has plenty in his favour. 

The maiden that Zgharta won three runs ago was only a small affair, but it was packed with quality and she had subsequent Group performers and Listed winners in behind her, so it is tough to see her not being able to win a handicap off this mark of 89.

Her two subsequent runs have definitely not shown her at her best, on the wrong side of the track and too far back at Royal Ascot and then endured a nightmare run at Goodwood on her latest start.

Oisin Murphy takes over from Hollie Doyle this afternoon and will be keen to cement his new contract with a decent win on a filly who might well be out of handicaps by the end of the season. 

Sea Force seemed to struggle to get going in rain-softened ground at Goodwood last time, but still ran a good race to finish fourth beaten just three quarters of a length in a similarly competitive handicap to this one.

He is back on quicker ground this afternoon and drawn in the middle of the field, so he should get a decent passage through this race and can turn the tables on horses that finished in front of him last time.

The cheekpieces that were applied have been dispensed with for this run but that isn’t a concern given Haggas is a meticulous planner.