SPRINT king David Nicholls has yet another smart speedster on his hands in the shape of Johannes, a leading contender for this afternoon's two-year-old Ripon Champion Trophy.

Provided Johannes (4.10) can reproduce the form he showed when scoring at York 12 days ago, then the silverware is as good as already on the mantlepiece.

It's all come in a hurry for Johannes, who looked nothing flash on his Catterick debut when finishing one-length behind Palace Episode.

Quite honestly the form of the race appeared to be all shop and no stock until the latter came out and lifted the prestigious Acomb Stakes at the Ebor meeting.

Only then did the selection start to stir up a modicum of interest, and sure enough insiders at the Nicholls' yard availed themselves of some pretty fancy odds prior to Johannes also obliging at the York three-day Festival.

A high draw is always handy on the round course, so trainer James Bethell must have been cock-a-hoop to see Granston allotted stall 18 in the one-mile Ripon Rowells Handicap.

The key factor to supporting Granston revolves around his proven ability to handle the rolling undulations of the home straight which will unhinge many of the other horses in the 20-strong field.

The Middleham-based gutsy grey has previously prevailed once over course and distance, plus demonstrated his current rude health by grinding out a convincing success at Leicester last time out.

By the time Granston has stepped on track to strut his stuff, Bethell might already have one in the bag courtesy of Angelofthenorth (3.00) in the preceding Billy Nevett Memorial Handicap.

Angelofthenorth started the season in scintillating style with successive triumphs at Musselburgh and Nottingham.

Predictably her handicap was shot to bits following that profitable brace and it's taken time to get back down to a feasible winning weight.

There should be a decent bank holiday crowd at Newcastle where Lightning Affair (2.10) is the clear-cut choice in the opening Saltwell Signs Maiden Stakes.

Mark Johnston's all-American bred colt has hit crossbar and the upright on his two tries to date, bold efforts which suggest he's now going to bulge the back of the net in what appears to be a relatively weak race.

In addition team Johnston go for gold with River Lena in the feature event on the card, the £17,500 Chisholm Bookmakers Blaydon Nursery.

River Lena dished out a tasty two-and-a-half-length drubbing to a useful colt of Michael Bell's at Beverley, a performance full of promise for the future, especially as his breeding tells us improvement can be expected over today's longer trip.

Having absolutely trotted up at Nottingham last month, Blazing Bailey (3.55) has not been seen to best effect since.

For my money its been a case of jockey error on each of his last two outings when in the first instance he was left too much to do, while secondly Hayley Turner didn't set a strong enough pace up front at Sandown recently.

Ace northern lightweight, Dale Gibson, is sufficiently hungry not to reproduce those mistakes and I fancy he'll make the most of his opportunity aboard Blazing Bailey, who is progressive young stayer well worth keeping in mind for the rest of the year.

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