For the first time in a decade, and only the second time this century, there won’t be an Aidan O’Brien-trained runner in the Coral-Eclipse and the absence of a Ballydoyle representative is likely to have a significant impact on how the 2022 renewal will be run.
A select field of six will contest the Sandown spectacular but there’s no obvious frontrunner so a tactical affair seems inevitable.
Alenquer looks the likeliest horse to seize the initiative as he tends to race prominently. That’s what he did when making his Group 1 breakthrough by winning the Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh in May.
That was a decent effort but he has considerably more to contend with today given he and the other three members of the older brigade must give their two three-year-old rivals 10lbs.
These aren’t any ordinary three-year-olds either. Both have already ticked the Classic box, French raider Vadeni winning the Prix du Jockey Club at Chantilly in superb style while Native Trail landed the Irish 2,000 Guineas at the Curragh having found only stablemate Coroebus too good the Newmarket equivalent.
No French horse has won the Coral-Eclipse since Javelot in 1960 but, having supplemented Vadeni for the race at a cost of £50,000 (€57,661) on Monday, connections evidently believe the son of Churchill has the class required to end that six-decade wait.
He was mightily impressive in Chantilly, surging clear to win by five lengths. If he rocks up in the same form at Sandown, he has to go close. That said, it's probably fair to say that wasn’t the strongest French Derby ever run and he unquestionably faces a stiffer test here.
Native Trail hasn’t yet quite lived up to the lofty expectations he set in a flawless juvenile campaign but an unfavourable draw perhaps contributed to his narrow defeat in Newmarket.
It’s fair to say he was more workmanlike than spectacular when winning the Irish 2,000 Guineas but at no point in the race did he look in genuine bother.
He steps up to 10 furlongs for the first time today and, while there are mixed messages pedigree-wise over whether he’ll stay that far, his running style suggests this could be his optimum trip.
If he stays, he’s the one they’ll all have to beat. Charlie Appleby’s charge can continue the recent trend of the Classic crop getting the better of their elders by becoming the fifth three-year-old to win this clash of the generations since 2015.
Of the older crew, the progressive Bay Bridge is feared most. Michael Stoute’s charge is the only horse in the line-up without a Group 1 on his CV but the New Bay colt was seriously impressive when winning the Group 3 Brigadier Gerard Stakes over course and distance in May.
That was his fifth successive win but that sequence was halted at Royal Ascot when he was unable to peg back the frontrunning State Of Rest in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes.
A slowly run race hampered Bay Bridge’s challenge on that occasion and a similar headache awaits here.
John Gosden has won this race four times since 2012 and has two contenders this time, Mishriff and Lord North.
Mishriff is a top-class horse on his day, a fact he proved when winning last year’s Juddmonte International by six lengths. However, he disappointed in this race last year on the back of a break and has been off even longer this time having trailed in last in the Saudi Cup in February. He can’t be completely dismissed but he does have questions to answer.
The same sentiments apply to stablemate Lord North, the oldest horse in the race at the age of six. A line can be drawn through his run in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes when he lost all chance at the start due to Frankie Dettori’s struggle to remove the horse’s hood.
However, he had no such obvious excuse when fourth in the Tattersalls Gold Cup and he’ll need to be a good deal better than that up against younger rivals of the calibre of Native Trail and Vadeni. The three-year-olds can fight out the finish and the step up in trip might just see Native Trail rediscover the swagger he showed as a two-year-old.
Big race verdict
1: Native Trail
2: Vadeni
3: Bay Bridge
