Aidan O'Brien, who is still on the crest of a wave after more big- race successes at the weekend, was yesterday responsible for 10 of the 15 confirmations for the Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster on Saturday.
His acceptors for the last Group One race of the season in Britain are headed by Castle Gandolfo, owned by Sue Magnier, but other interesting possibles include last week's Newmarket winner Century City.
The other possibles are the supplemented Godolphin runner Mount Joy, Mr Sandancer for James Given, Redback for Richard Hannon, Savannah Bay for Brian Meehan and Tahitian Storm, from the Mark Tompkins stable.
The 15 confirmations are: Camp David, Canberra, Castle Gandolfo, Century City, Della Francesca, High Chaparral, High Sierra, Mr Sandancer, Mutinyonthebounty, Redback, Savannah Bay, Tahitian Storm, Temple Of Artemis, Wiseman's Ferry and Mount Joy.
O'Brien has won this race twice before, with Aristotle and Saratoga Springs.
James Given, speaking from Milan where his filly Jessica's Dream won at San Siro racecourse on Sunday, said of Mr Sandancer: "It's still a bit questionable whether he will run. We will have to see what the ground is doing.
"If it remains soft, he almost certainly won't run. We would require it to dry quite a lot." Mr Sandancer was a 7 to 1 chance when finishing sixth under Michael Fenton behind Mark Johnston's Fight Your Corner in the Tom McGee Autumn Stakes, a listed race over a mile at Ascot earlier this month.
"He seems all right. He was disappointing at Ascot but it was soft ground there - so there is no point going back to soft again."
Mr Sandancer, by 2000 Guineas winner Zafonic, won a maiden race at Newcastle in June and was later fourth to Naheef in the Vintage Stakes at Goodwood in August and second to Hills Of Gold at Doncaster.
The going at Doncaster, where racing is also scheduled for Friday, is soft.
Track manager Malcolm Taylor said: "We have had 24mm of rain since Saturday morning. We are dry at present but we have gone to good to soft and soft in that period of time.
"We called it soft yesterday morning and, since then, we have had a further 15mm of rain since the going was changed to soft. If there was such a thing as "pretty soft", that would be it. It's well on the soft side at present.
"It's not going backwards but, the way things are going, it is going to be no better than good to soft on Saturday.
"The forecast is for it to be quite changeable. We are expecting plenty of wet weather intermittently, with no sunshine between the showers."
The Racing Post Trophy, run over the round mile with a total prize fund of £175,000, has been won in recent years by high-quality juveniles such as Commander Collins, Celtic Swing and King's Theatre.
Wet weather is set to play havoc with fixtures in Britain over the next couple of days.
Today's Flat race meeting at Yarmouth has been abandoned because of false patches of ground on the course following rain.
No problems are reported from today's scheduled jumps meeting at Exeter and the all-weather fixture at Wolverhampton.
But tomorrow's Flat race meeting at Nottingham was abandoned following a 3.30p.m. inspection yesterday because of waterlogging.
Officials at Newcastle are preparing to hold an inspection at noon today to assess prospects for tomorrow's Flat meeting should the forecast of further heavy rain prove accurate.
