DAVID O’MEARA will be double-handed in today’s Fine Equinity Stakes (4.20) as he attempts to record an opening-day success at this year’s Ebor Festival.

The North Yorkshire trainer has recorded a succession of victories at York in the last 12 months, and is hoping Big Thunder and Saved By The Bell will prove that course form is a crucial factor when they return to the Knavesmire this afternoon.

The pair finished first and second in last month’s Sky Bet Supporting Yorkshire Air Ambulance Stakes at the track, with Big Thunder edging out Saved By The Bell by a length.

Both horses have been hiked in the handicap as a result, but O’Meara is confident they both remain capable of featuring in the finish again.

“Big Thunder won first time out for us and we were delighted with that,” he said. “He was given a great ride by Danny (Tudhope) and he seemed to enjoy it at York, so we’re going back there again.

“Saved By The Bell will join him there. There was very little between them on the last day, and it’ll be very close between them again I’m sure. Hopefully, the two of them will be good enough to be first and second again in whatever way.”

O’Meara also runs sprinter Highland Acclaim in the Symphony Group Stakes (1.55), and readily admits he has been targeting a number of his horses at this week’s four days of action.

“We tend to try to run lots of horses at York,” he said. “A lot of our owners are Yorkshire based, and they love to have runners at the track.

“The Ebor meeting in particular is very competitive, and if we have horses that are good enough to run there, our owners are very keen to do that. I suppose, in a way, we do target it.”

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CLASSIC winner Covert Love heads a field of 11 declared for tomorrow’s Darley Yorkshire Oaks.

The Hugo Palmer-trained filly won the Darley Irish Oaks in tremendous fashion to take her unbeaten record this term to four, and was supplemented for tomorrow’s Group One, which is open to older fillies and mares, at the confirmation stage.

She will be re-opposed by the Jessica Harrington-trained Jack Naylor and David Wachman's Curvy, who were second and third respectively at the Curragh last month.

Aidan O'Brien has two remaining entries, last week's Gowran scorer Easter and Outstanding, who was third in the Belmont Oaks in New York on her latest start.

Jim Bolger has pitched in his Irish 1,000 Guineas heroine Pleascach, while completing the line-up are Lustrous, Miss Marjurie, Crystal Zvezda, Lady Of Dubai, and Sea Calisi, trained in France by Francois Doumen.