TOM QUEALLY'S rapid rise to fame is firmly in line for yet another boost by winning Haydock's £70,000 Old Newton Cup aboard Balkan Knight (2.55).

Following Johnny Murtagh's surprise decision to relinquish his lucrative position as stable jockey to the powerful David Loder yard, Queally needed no second invitation to snap up the unexpected job offer.

Loder's faith in the Irish youngster, who was an unfamiliar face on these shores prior to the start of the year, has been fully justified by virtue of Queally's capacity to keep a cool head when others around are dropping clangers.

Arguably his first major breakthrough came on Balkan Knight at York's May meeting, where Queally needed all of his tactical awareness, plus strength-in-the-saddle, to repel a strong field in style.

The ground was a good old-fashioned glue-pot that day and with a relatively soggy forecast for today, it seems likely that Balkan Knight will encounter a similar surface, conditions that he'll love while others flounder in the mud.

The meeting opens with the Group 2 Lancashire Oaks, a £100,000 affair well within the grasp of Sahool (1.50), a gallant runner-up to Godolphin's top-notch filly Punctilious in the Ribblesdale Stakes.

Ace Of Hearts (2.40) is the trump card on a superb supporting card to the Coral-Eclispe at Sandown.

The Chris Wall-trained gelding has found a new lease of life this season, wiping away the misery of a winless 2003 campaign by racking up a sizzling mid-summer three-timer at Newmarket, Doncaster and Pontefract.

Admittedly, the in-form five-year-old takes a significant step up in grade for the £100,000 totescoop6 Heritage Handicap, but the manner in which he cut down Calcutta with a Formula One-like burst of speed at Pontefract suggests Ace Of Hearts is well up to the task.

Tim Easterby's stable is normally a reliable source of winners at this stage of the season and I very much like the look of Swainsworld (2.50) at Beverley.

The colt confirmed the promise of his first couple of outings with a convincing victory in a hotly-contested track-and-trip maiden on June 22.

Swainsworld is a handsome beast with muscles in all of the right places, just the sort in fact to make up for the time he lost when unable to race as a two-year-old.

The final event of the fixture, division two of the George Kilburn Memorial Stakes, features last Sunday's beaten nap selection, Elliot's Choice (5.30), who was running in a handicap, an event far stronger than the one he now contests.

He also made significant late headway and a reproduction of that form should almost certainly be sufficient to get him off the mark.

Carlisle-bound Efidium (8.35) has been a good friend to this column in the past and he gets the nod in the seven-furlong Carling Handicap.

"He loves a target to aim for, that's why he normally goes well at Carlisle," said Efidium's Malton-based handler, Neville Bycroft, whose small team has been admirably consistent in recent weeks.

If you've got a free day tomorrow, a visit to Redcar might not go amiss to see the hugely-competitive 11-furlong £20,000 Formica Handicap.

There are plenty of progressive three-year-olds in the line-up, with preference for Lets Roll (3.20), who has been regularly finding the frame over slightly shorter trips and is open to improvement now that he's upped in distance.