Enable To Face Seven In The Eclipse

Juddmonte's star turn Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}) heads a field of eight in Saturday's G1 Coral-Eclipse at Sandown, with the G1 St James's Palace S. winner Circus Maximus (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and Listed Wolferton H. scorer Addeybb (Ire) (Pivotal {GB}) the most notable absentees on Thursday's confirmation stage. The 5-year-old Epsom Oaks, King George and dual Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe will break from the widest stall in the 10-furlong feature, which represents her first run over the trip since her only defeat when third as a fledgling headline act at Newbury in April 2017. With no obvious pacemaker in the line-up, it may be that the homebred is forced into cutting out her own running as she did when staging a successful comeback in Kempton's G3 September S. 10 months ago.

In recent times, only Master Willie (GB) in 1981, Halling (GB) on the two occasions he took part in the race in 1995 and 1996, and Golden Horn (GB) (Cape Cross {Ire}) in 2015 have managed to make all in this contest. If successful, Enable will be following on from the two prior fillies to have mastered the colts in Pebbles (GB) and Kooyonga (Ire), but the Eclipse has long proved difficult for that sex. Time Charter (GB) failed, as did Triptych and Indian Skimmer on multiple occasions, while others to miss out include Milligram (GB), In the Groove (GB), Bosra Sham, Islington (Ire), Snow Fairy (Ire) and The Fugue (GB). She also has to win it on her seasonal debut as her sire did in 2012, but the vibes are strong and the market is speaking in her favour at present.

Disappointingly for a race long labelled the first “clash of the generations”, there is only one engaged and that is Castle Down Racing's Telecaster (GB) (New Approach {Ire}). Last of 13 in the G1 Epsom Derby June 1, the homebred who had previously earned a supplementary to the blue riband with an impressive success in the G2 Dante S. at York May 16 bids to emulate the 1991 Eclipse hero Environment Friend (GB) who bounced back from finishing 11th at Epsom. Trainer Hughie Morrison's hand has been forced by the way the colt has taken the experience and said, “He is bursting with energy at home, so we thought we'd better run him.”

“Epsom probably came too soon for him and the course was probably not to his liking. He's a horse who has got a lot of ability and we look forward to a good run–I just hope he turns up,” Morrison added. “He didn't at Epsom and there was no reason to think that he wouldn't, other than he had not had enough time to recover from a hard race 16 days before, as well as the fact that he was an immature horse who'd had three races in the spring. We had that doubt in our mind. Will we get the horse which ran in the Dante on Saturday, or the one who ran in the Derby? He doesn't give you any outward signs of the contrary. It's pretty unnerving and it would be easy to bottle it, but he looks well, is working well and opportunities like this do not come along very often, so off you go.”

“He was the form horse going into Epsom and had the right profile, but it wasn't to be. The positive is that he showed no stress levels afterwards. The weight-for-age concession is helpful, although we are a relatively immature three-year-old. I'm a huge admirer of Enable. She's a fantastic mare and is fantastic for the sport. It's great to be even considered for a race that she competes in.”

Sandown's warm-up card on Friday sees the Listed Gala S., a sort of “mini-Eclipse” over the same course and distance won in the past by the subsequent hero of the prestige event David Junior. 'TDN Rising Star' Elarqam (GB) (Frankel {GB}) bids to stay on an upward curve after a win in the Listed Festival S. at Goodwood May 25 and third in the Listed Wolferton S. at Royal Ascot June 18. “It's nice that he's strung two very good runs together,” assistant trainer Charlie Johnston said. “The huge amount of rain that fell at Ascot aided the winner and went against us, so I think in conditions that didn't play to his strengths he ran a very good race. All those that finished around him had competed at group one level, so it was a very good run. We're looking towards the Sky Bet York Stakes, but that's at the end of the month so we thought it was long enough between runs, he'd come out of Ascot well and this looked a good opportunity for him.”