Dawn Approach and Toronado will lock horns for the third time this season after featuring among seven horses declared for the Sussex Stakes at Glorious Goodwood on Wednesday.
The Richard Hannon-trained Toronado was expected to give the unbeaten Dawn Approach most to think about in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket in early May, but could only finish fourth as Jim Bolger’s Godolphin-owned colt claimed Classic glory with a mesmerising display.
The margin was far closer when the pair met again in the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot, with Dawn Approach coming out on top by just a short head in a pulsating finish.
The duo meet again in the Sussex, with Bolger also having declared Dawn Approach’s perennial pacemaker Leitir Mor to complete the trio of three-year-old runners taking on their elders.
Chief contender for the older generation is Aidan O’Brien’s four-year-old Declaration Of War, winner of Royal Ascot’s Queen Anne Stakes and second to Al Kazeem in the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown.
The Ballydoyle trainer also saddles Reply, with the field completed by John Gosden’s Gregorian and the David Simcock-trained Trade Storm.
Champion jockey Richard Hughes believes Toronado would only “have to find a little bit” to gain revenge over Dawn Approach.
“I’ve been thinking about it from the time I heard the result being called at Ascot,” he told the Guardian.
“I feel there is a bit (of a score to settle), I feel I was very unlucky at Ascot. I think an awful lot of the horse and I’d love him to show his true best.”
