Henry Cecil showed he can still train big race winners by landing Brighton's richest prize of the season.

The Newmarket handler's Dawnus snatched the spoils in a thrilling three-way photo for yesterday's £33,000 Tote Exacta Virginia Rated Stakes.

Cecil, formerly one of the top trainers in the country, has slipped well down the pecking order, but he got the better of Sussex expert Mark Johnston on this occasion.

Johnston, a regular winner at the Goodwood Festival, supplied half of the eight-strong field from his Middleham stables 300 miles away.

The best of his quartet was Itemise, beaten a head and a head into third by Dawnus and In A Silent Way.

Dawnus had finished fourth of five on her previous outing at Cecil's local course in another listed event.

That was over a mile and a half and the drop back in trip to one mile two furlongs suited the three-year-old filly down to the ground, even though the firm going did not.

Ryan said: "She is a very genuine little filly, tough as boots. She hated the ground but got on with it and gave me everything I asked of her.

"It was probably a bit too far for her at Newmarket. We thought she would get away with it but she didn't and now we have found a lovely little race for her."

Owners Derek and Jean Clee were represented by Richard Frisby, who manages and buys their horses.

Frisby said: "They come from just west of Cardiff and they couldn't make it, which is a great shame.

"A win like this means an awful lot to them. They were watching it on telly and there will have been much excitement in Wales.

"This was a race we had been targeting for some time. Derek and Jean are breeders and the filly will retire to their stud, probably at the end of the year."

Runner-up In A Silent Way, trained by Michael Jarvis at Newmarket, had a similar profile to the winner, having also ran disappointingly on her previous outing at Newbury when a warm favourite.

Course specialist Ailincala, seeking her fifth success at Brighton, was close up in fourth, ahead of another Johnston runner Greta D'Argent.

His other representatives, Pantone and Pie High, filled the last two places, leaving him empty handed for once from a Sussex raid.