Canford Cliffs and Dick Turpin are on course to lock horns once again in the Lockinge Stakes at Newbury on May 14.
The Richard Hannon stablemates clashed three times last season, with Dick Turpin finishing in front of his companion in the Greenham and 2000 Guineas before Canford Cliffs gained his revenge in the St James’s Palace Stakes.
Canford Cliffs then confirmed himself as the leading miler with a win in the Sussex Stakes and will reappear at Newbury.
“He goes for the Lockinge and he’s in good form,” Richard Hannon Jnr, assistant to his father, said.
“He improved from two to three and physically he has from three to four. He’s a very big horse now and he’s done very well.
“Between him and Dick Turpin, that will be a great race. I’m not sure if they’ll both turn up yet, but that is the plan at the moment.
“Either way you wish the race was this weekend as they are both in great form.”
Dick Turpin has already had a race this summer, beating a decent field at Sandown quite easily.
“I liked the way Roger Charlton’s horse (Cityscape) was quickening and came up to race him and Dick stuck his neck out and quickened by a horse that was already quickening, which I thought was very good,” he told At The Races.
“He carried a penalty and it was a nice confidence booster for him and he’s back on the winning trail. Hopefully there’s a lot of good races in him this season.
“We put him in the Eclipse the other day and he’s also in the Prix D’Ispahan where he could meet Goldikova. She owes us – that’s the one scalp we want.”
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