The unbeaten Derby winner Golden Horn is a heavy odds-on favourite for Saturday’s Coral Eclipse but will have to overcome Aidan O’Brien’s older star Cougar Mountain in a race that has proved tough for Epsom heroes in the past.
Sea The Stars (2009) and Nashwan (1989) both followed up their Derby victories by winning the Sandown highlight as three year olds but in between Authorized (2007), Motivator (2005), Benny The Dip (1997) and Erhaab (1994) all failed against older horses.
A decade
The 2010 Derby winner Workforce was runner-up to the O’Brien-trained So You Think in the 2011 Eclipse while O’Brien also upset the classic applecart a decade ago when Oratorio beat Motivator.
Ireland’s champion trainer is chasing a record-equalling sixth Eclipse victory this weekend when stepping Cougar Mountain past a mile for the first time in a ten-furlong event that will have a maximum of just five runners.
Golden Horn, an impressive winner over his stable companion and subsequent Irish Derby winner Jack Hobbs at Epsom over three weeks ago, was immediately installed as low as 2-5 to maintain his unbeaten record for trainer John Gosden.
He is the sole three year old and although bookmakers reckon The Grey Gatsby, unlucky in Royal Ascot’s Prince Of Wales’s Stakes last time, will be his main danger, Cougar Mountain is going to Sandown on the back of a career best performance when third to Solow in the Queen Anne at Royal Ascot.
“We will step him up in trip now and he’ll go for the Eclipse,” said O’Brien.
An Eclipse clash between the English and French Derby winners was ruled out when Andre Fabre was disappointed with a workout by New Bay but Golden Horn impressed both Gosden and jockey Frankie Dettori.
“Frankie was thrilled with his work on Saturday morning. He did a lovely seven furlongs with a good older horse rated 118 and he skipped clear of him,” said Gosden who has also left Western Hymn in the Eclipse.
Today’s home action at Gowran can prove lucrative for champion jockey Pat Smullen who is clear in his bid for an eighth title this season with 53 winners under his belt already.
Unusually today's opening juvenile maiden over a mile doesn't have a Ballydoyle runner and on the ground conditions, Carla Bianca's half-brother True Solitaire, a National Stakes entry, could make a winning debut for the Dermot Weld team.
A step up to a mile could suit Weld's Mutadhamen in the following maiden while Smullen is on Danse Rouge for Pat Flynn in the final handicap.
The former champion Declan McDonogh may also enjoy a good meeting. Firecrown found only Baby Dinnis too good on her first start of the season last Friday while Beau Satchel finished well at the Curragh on Saturday in the race won by Hasanour.
