ROOKIE trainer Alan Swinbank missed the biggest win of his short career when Court Express lifted Saturday's Thirsk Hunt Cup under a terrific ride from Jason Weaver.

Alan, based at Melsonby near Richmond, took over the reins from Bill Haigh last February after spending two years as pupil assistant. But instead of going to Thirsk, Alan gallantly opted to drive the horsebox to Hexham, where his only runner, Denarius, finished runner-up to the strongly-fancied Telemoss.

Court Express provided Swinbank with a major fillip to his 22-box yard by scooping the near £12,000 first prize for owner Tim Hawkins.

Swinbank's mentor, Haigh, who saddled the winner, joked: "It was always the plan that Alan took over from me after a couple of years, now I'm just his unpaid adviser!"

Swinbank said: "Court Express wintered really well, we've got a race in mind at Beverley then it would be lovely if he could take his chance in the Hunt Cup at Royal Ascot.

"It's been a great boost for the stable and we've got some smashing young horses for sale, including a couple of nice two-year-olds."

It was just like old times for Jack Berry and his wife Jo, supervising not only the winner of the five-furlong Baldersby Handicap, 9-2 favourite Gdansk, but also the third-home, 20-1 outsider Nifty Major.

Jack, who handed over stewardship of Cockerham Stables in Lancashire to son Alan, was overseeing affairs in the north, while Alan was taking care of his runners at Newmarket's Guineas meeting.

There was a pulsating finish to the seven-furlong Coxwold Handicap when the Seb Sanders-ridden Intricate Web came with a late rattle to catch the gambled-on Yarob.

The Eric Alston-trained winner, successful in three of his last four all-weather outings, foiled a substantial gamble on the runner-up Yarob, backed down to 14-1 from an opening price of 33's.

Dandy Nicholls, responsible for Yarob, remarkably also saddled the third (Exeat), fourth (Mister Rambo), and fifth (Al Muallim), a sure sign that his shrewd outfit is about to hit top gear after a relatively slow start.

Sanders wasn't so lucky in the opening EBF juvenile contest when he just lost out aboard Tim Easterby's newcomer Fayr Jag, who narrowly failed to hold the last-ditch charge of Welsh raider Kelsey Rose.

Winning jockey Jo Badger came in for deserved fulsome praise from successful trainer David Evans after the race: "She gave the filly a fantastic ride," he said.

l Nayef remains a possible for the Vodafone Derby, despite his modest showing in the Sagitta 2000 Guineas.

The winter favourite for both Classics was removed from the betting for Epsom by Coral and Ladbrokes after finishing eighth behind Golan at Newmarket on Saturday.

But Marcus Tregoning stressed that Hamdan Al Maktoum's colt, impressive winner of both his starts last year but beaten on his reappearance at Newmarket last month, could still make the line-up.

''I am not saying he won't run in the Derby or that he will as we have plenty of time and if he was going to Epsom he wouldn't be running again before then,'' the trainer said.

''We will see how he comes out of the race in the next couple of weeks. He had quite a hard race, as you would expect in the Guineas, and he lost a bit of weight but he will put that back on in the next three or four days.''

Tregoning is convinced that Nayef should step up to middle-distances, whether or not he runs in the Derby