Hurricane Lane readies for Arc as Eilean Dubh chases a big prize

Royal route: Last season's Doncaster St Leger winner Hurricane Lane runs in the Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot today as he begins preparations for a second tilt at the Arc. Picture: Getty

Third in the French highlight last season, he had previously won the Irish Derby, Grand Prix de Paris and Doncaster’s St Leger in a fantastic season.

While he has not been out yet this year, there has been no hold up with Appleby building everything around a return to ParisLongchamp in October.

Appleby said: “What we’ve seen since he worked on the July Course, we’ve been very pleased with. His constitution as a three-year-old was phenomenal and on what we’ve seen early in his four-year-old career, hopefully we’re going to be dealing with the same horse.”

Karl Burke’s Yorkshire team may have struck gold with Dramatised in the Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot this week, but they won’t have to go so far tomorrow to hunt down an even bigger financial prize when Eilean Dubh goes for the £100,000 bonus on offer to connections of any horse who wins three times during the Sky Bet Sunday Series.

With wins at York and Hamilton this season, Burke’s inmate will cash in with victory in the 17-runner last (6.45), with races being screened by ITV.