Austrian Theory produced a good effort to finish third at Chester just six days ago and trainer Charlie Johnston clearly had no hesitations by turning out the four-year-old the following week.

Having broke well from the stalls Joe Fanning made his intentions clear from the outset and managed to work his way to the front with the minimum of fuss.

Joe Fanning soon slackened the early tempo and began to stack them up.

The well-supported Fantastic Fox (9/2) cruised into contention, but his challenge was soon short-lived as kicked for home.

Stablemate Dutch Decoy (7/1) joined the party entering the final two furlongs, but Joe Fanning always looked to have saved enough petrol and Austrian Theory eventually prevailed by half a length.

George Boughey's All The King's Men (11/2) finished with a late rattle to take the third spot with Orbaan (18/1) back in fourth. Favourite Fantastic Fox (9/2) faded into fifth.

Speaking to ITV following the race Fanning reflected: "We always thought a lot of this horse you know. As a two-year-old, we thought he was going to be quite nice and he's just been disappointing.

I won on him at Hamilton last year and we thought we'd go back there, and he started running disappointing again but his last run at Chester was quite good, so I think Charlie was quite hopeful today.

He said on the way down he thought he'd run a good race.

I was [always confident he'd find more] because I'd never really gone for him you know inside the two [furlong marker], I was just worried about Dutch Decoy coming alongside.

Nice for Charlie [to have a winner on a big day] and we've got a few more chances today.