YEATS, Aidan O'Brien's top stayer of last term, makes his seasonal reappearance in the listed Vintage Crop Stakes at Navan this afternoon and even allowing for the fact that he is unlikely to be fully fit at this early stage of the campaign, he still looks a class above his nine rivals. It will be a major surprise if he is beaten.

The six-year-old is rated far superior to the opposition and should have little difficulty containing the challenge of Jessica Harrington's representative Tartouche and the English raider Glitter Baby, both of whom have the benefit of an outing under their belts already this season.

Reform Act, from the Dermot Weld stable, must also be respected on the Group form she showed at the backend of last year, but Yeats is still the one fancied to come out on top.

The David Wachmantrained Contest was reported to be fairly useful before making his racecourse debut at Limerick last week and he certainly showed plenty of promise until tiring in the closing stages. He can put that experience to good use when dropping back to six furlongs for the Coolmore Aussie Rules Maiden.

Aidan O'Brien's unraced filly Cherry Hinton is a halfsister to Galileo and would be a worthy winner of the Coolmore Ad Valorem (Fillies) Race on pedigree alone.

Nevertheless, she is fancied to enhance her value further with success in this one-mile event at the expense of Kevin Prendergast's recent Tipperary scorer Ela Enta and Fly Free.

The John Oxx-trained Born High may be good enough to capture the Meet The Ponies Maiden at the first time of asking, while at Gowran Park his stable-companion Joshua's Princess, who chased home Ela Enta at Tipperary, can be expected to improve from the run and gets the nod in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF (Fillies) Maiden.

Her pilot Fran Berry, deputising for Oxx's stable jockey Michael Kinane who is riding at Sha Tin this afternoon, has a good chance of doubling up courtesy of Eysha in the opening Senior Golf Membership Available At Gowran Park Maiden.