Fugue set for tilt at Irish showpiece

John Gosden’s fabulous filly is among 13 stellar entries for Leopardstown’s premier race after the four-year-old, owned and bred by composer Andrew Lloyd-Webber and his wife Madeleine, powered to a famous victory on the Knavesmire under William Buick.

The scintillating star is a more likely runner in Saturday’s showpiece over 10 furlongs than the weather-dependent middle-distance champion Al Kazeem, who won three Group Ones before faltering in York’s Juddmonte International on going which had become unsuitably fast.

Aidan O’Brien’s Declaration Of War and Jim Bolger’s Irish Derby winner Trading Leather, the two horses that beat Al Kazeem at York, are other notable entries for this outstanding race.

There is also a tentative entry for O’Brien’s Kingsbarns, who has not raced since galloping to victory in Doncaster’s Racing Post Trophy in October last year.

Al Kazeem’s trainer Roger Charlton said his charge, whom he rates higher than his former Epsom Derby winner Quest For Fame, will be a “doubtful starter” unless the rain arrives.

He said the horse’s jockey, James Doyle – Prince Khalid Abdullah’s newly-appointed retained rider – walked the course on Sunday and said conditions were “very quick”.

Man of the moment Doyle’s reconnaissance mission came hours before he partnered Royal Ascot heroine Rizeena to Group One glory in the Moyglare Stud Stakes on the Curragh.

The Shadwell Fillies’ Mile, the Connolly’s Red Mills Cheveley Park Stakes and the Prix Marcel Boussac are the options for the Sheikh Rashid Dalmook Al Maktoum-owned filly.

“It was very pleasing,” said her veteran trainer Clive Brittain. “She’s eaten all her feed and completely cleaned up by seven o’clock this morning. It’s always good news when they eat up like that away from home.

“We have several obvious options – there’s the Cheveley Park, the Marcel Boussac and the Fillies’ Mile.

“You could see her again in any one of the three. It depends on her now. She’s the trainer, I’m the learner!”

In other big race news, Society Rock will be unable to defend his crown in the Betfred Sprint Cup at Haydock on Saturday after banging his head in a fall.

The James Fanshawe-trained sprinter showed he had lost none of his spark when making a successful seasonal debut in the Duke of York Stakes on the Knavesmire in May.

He has since finished second to Lethal Force, whom he beat at York, in both the Diamond Jubilee Stakes and the Darley July Cup. Lethal Force heads 18 horses left in the six-furlong showpiece. Clive Cox’s speedster will attempt to regain winning ways after being beaten into second place by Moonlight Cloud at Deauville four weeks ago.

Cox has a second string to his bow in Reckless Abandon, who was last seen finishing fifth in the King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot and who has yet to reach the heights of his juvenile campaign.

Skipton-born William Haggas has an interesting contender in Stewards’ Cup hero Rex Imperator – owned, amongst others, by Yorkshire businessman Steve Parkin – while another Glorious Goodwood winner, Garswood, is in the mix for Malton trainer Richard Fahey.

Meanwhile, Stepper Point, the winner of the Beverley Bullet sprint, could have a dress rehearsal over Longchamp’s five-furlong track in two weeks’ time ahead of a crack at the Qatar Prix de l’Abbaye on Arc day.

Trainer William Muir is set to run his sprinter in either the Qatar Prix du Petit Couvert on September 15 or the Dubai International Airport World Trophy seven days later before Europe’s premier autumn dash.

Wetherby stalwart Time For Rupert, one of the standard-bearers of Paul Webber’s stable and placed in the last two renewals of the Charlie Hall Chase, is walking himself back to fitness after major surgery to remove a growth from his head.

The Flemensfirth gelding was found to have a growth “the size of a tennis ball” situated close to the brain that could have caused blindness to the nine-year-old, who has not raced since finishing fourth to Silviniaco Conti at the West Yorkshire track last October.

He will miss this year’s race and the Crabbie’s Grand National is the horse’s long-term objective.

“He’s had eight days walking,” said the trainer, who may run Time For Rupert in Ascot’s Long Walk Hurdle in order to protect his charge’s handicap mark of 152 over fences.

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