Guineas heroines head Sun entries
The £200,000 one-mile contest will be run as a Group One for the first time in its 38-year history.
The race is being sponsored for the first time by the kingdom of Bahrain, which has backed the Bahrain Trophy at Newmarket’s July meeting for more than 20 years.
Attraction won her first eight races, including both the English and Irish 1000 Guineas and the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot, before losing her undefeated record to Soviet Song in the Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket last month.
Soviet Song, who has followed up that win with a victory over the colts in the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood, is also in the Sun Chariot.
Russian Rhythm enjoyed a marvellous campaign in 2003, winning the 1000 Guineas and Coronation Stakes before going on to further glory in the Nassau Stakes at Goodwood.
The Kingmambo filly has been sidelined with a leg injury since winning the Lockinge Stakes on her return to action at Newbury in May.
Her trainer Michael Stoute holds a particularly strong hand in the Sun Chariot, having also entered this season’s Nassau Stakes scorer Favourable Terms, Chic, Red Bloom and the unbeaten Antediluvian, who won a Listed contest impressively at Sandown last time.
Godolphin’s Echoes In Eternity landed this contest last season and is entered again, while the Dubai operation could also be represented by Cairns, Carry On Katie, the ex-South African Crimson Palace, 1000 Guineas runner-up Sundrop and Zosima.
There is the possibility of a strong overseas challenge, with five entries from Ireland and four from France.
The Irish contingent includes Alexander Goldrun, a length runner-up to Attraction at the Curragh, Miss Mambo, who has been transferred to Dermot Weld after finishing third in the French 1000 Guineas in May, and the Aidan O’Brien-trained Yesterday, triumphant in the 2003 Irish 1000 Guineas but unraced since finishing third to Islington at the Breeders’ Cup last October.
The French entry includes last season’s French Oaks and Prix du Moulin winner Nebraska Tornado, French 1000 Guineas runner-up Grey Lilas, and Robert Collet’s Love And Bubbles, a Group Three scorer at Chantilly in June.
Another interesting contenders is Mick Channon’s Majestic Desert.
