George Margarson's Atavus, a real revelation in two of this season's biggest handicaps, is 5-1 clear favourite to land another in the £100,000 William Hill Mile at Goodwood tomorrow.

The Leeds-based firm have also removed Surprise Encounter from their list after trainer Ed Dunlop revealed the Royal Hunt Cup winner is likely to tackle the Theo Fennell Lennox Stakes at the same track on Friday.

Surprise Encounter, who was an 8-1 chance with Hills, missed last Saturday's Tote International, won by Atavus, as he suffered a slight setback after his Royal success.

"He's 99 per cent certain to go for the Lennox," said Dunlop.

"He sadly missed Ascot (Tote International) because of the over-reach. He would have top-weight on Thursday and, if he got drawn one, would face a virtually impossible task, although obviously we will never know.

"Friday's race also looks competitive, as you would expect for a Group race. As he is a gelding it won't improve his paddock value but it will show us the level we should be aiming at for the rest of the season."

Dunlop confirmed that stablemate Soviet Flash will now almost certainly take his chance in Thursday's £100,000 contest.

Atavus is reported in "great shape" by Margarson but his trainer will wait on the ground at Goodwood before committing his charge to the race.

In addition to his Ascot triumph, Atavus has also landed the Bunbury Cup this term and Margarson is very tempted to let him take his chance.

"He's in good form," said Margarson. "I'm just waiting on the ground. He goes on firm but Goodwood can get pretty hard. At the moment it's similar to Ascot, just a little bit firmer underneath."

Trainer Bill Turner will face an inquiry of the Jockey Club Disciplinary Committee after his Ede'iff tested positive for a prohibited substance.

An analysis of the four-year-old's urine was taken after he finished second to Tortugas in the Hoary Morning Juvenile Novices' Selling Hurdle at Taunton on November 23 last year.

The test by the Horseracing Forensic Laboratory confirmed the presence of hydrocortisone, a finding confirmed by the German Horseracing Laboratory in Cologne, who performed counter analysis.

A date for the hearing will be announced in due course.

A decision has been made to refer a number of issues to the European Court of Justice concerning the appeal of William Hill against a ruling that it must pay for use of the British Horeseracing Board's database rights.

William Hill went to the Court of Appeal over a landmark decision by Mr Justice Laddie in the High Court in February that they were infringing the BHB's database rights by not paying to display information such as runners and riders on its website.

William Hill lodged an official complaint with the Office of Fair Trading after the initial ruling and also indicated that they would go to the European Court if their subsequent appeal failed.

"We are naturally pleased that the Court of Appeal has recognised many of our concerns about the original case by referring it to the ECJ," said William Hill chief executive David Harding today.

BHB chairman Tristram Ricketts was also happy with comments made by the Court Of Appeal.