Al Kazeem leads a small but select field of eight horses confirmed at the five-day stage for the Eclipse Stakes at Sandown on Saturday.
The Roger Charlton-trained five-year-old has emerged as a force at the highest level this season and will be seeking his third straight Group One success after the Tattersalls Gold Cup and, most recently, the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot.
He just got up to edge out the enterprisingly ridden Mukhadram that day and the runner-up is in line for a rematch having been left in by William Haggas.
Aidan O’Brien is three-handed with Queen Anne victor Declaration Of War, St James’s Palace third Mars and last year’s triple Classic hero Camelot, for whom retirement has been mooted as a possibility.
The Fugue, third to Al Kazeem at the Royal meeting, represents John Gosden, who won the race last year with Nathaniel.
German contender Pastorius and the Clive Brittain-trained Miblish complete the possibles.
