Aidan O’Brien’s The Lion In Winter is amongst 10 horses declared for the Group 1 BOYLE Sports Lockinge Stakes at Newbury on Saturday.
The four-year-old also has the supplemented pacemaker Mississippi River for company, but the Irish raiders face a strong British-trained contingent.
Damysus heads the betting for John & Thady Gosden after an excellent reappearance in the Earl Of Sefton Stakes at Newmarket, while Karl Burke’s Zeus Olympios could dispute favouritism.
Charlie Appleby relies on Notable Speech with Opera Ballo not declared, while William Haggas runs More Thunder.
Cicero's Gift, Dancing Gemini, Jonquil, and French challenger Sahlan complete the field.
O’Brien said of The Lion In Winter: “We are very happy with him. We haven’t seen the best of him yet. I think if we get the right set-up we might see it.
“He goes to the Lockinge and he needs to step forward, but he could do. The problem was we messed about with his trip too much before we dropped back to a mile.
“This year it's the mile all the way, so it will be interesting to see."
Bertrand Le Metayer, European racing manager for Sahlan's owners Al Shaqab Racing said on the Nick Luck Daily Podcast: "The whole plan was to try and get a Group 1 or two out of him this year as well.
"He's definitely come up physically, the performance we have to forgive him was the French Guineas where he was sick. Since that he's been going the right way.
"Francis would ideally have loved to have a prep run but they were a little bit unwell earlier in the year so he's going straight to the Lockinge and apparently worked nicely on Monday - so we're ready for it.
"He's always liked him but Francis doesn't say much!
"(In Del Mar) he was surprised by the rhythm, he got a little bit bothered coming home and could have been second. That was a good trip away in getting him to mature."
Andrew Balding runs Jonquil after he won his seasonal reappearance in the Listed Paradise Stakes at Ascot on May 1.
He said: "He’s obviously started well winning at Ascot really quite impressively. He’s a horse we’ve always thought a lot of and one I’d hope he will prove very competitive in a Group 1 at some stage this year in England.
"Since Ascot we’ve been delighted with him - he’s eating well and seems in good spirits out of exercise. It’s quite a quick turnaround, just about two weeks but the feeling is that he’s recovered well from Ascot and, seems at his best form at home.”
"The Lockinge is an important race in that it's the first sort of really big Group 1 mile race of the year in England for the older horses. So, I think if any horse were to perform well in the Lockinge, the rest of the season is exciting to look forward to.”
"We’ve had a couple of horses placed in the Lockinge before, so it’d be lovely as Newbury is our local track.
"It would be lovely to win it one day and my dad (the late Ian Balding) was lucky enough to win it a couple of times, so we will try and catch him up one day."
Paddy Power (prices correct at 1045 BST on 14/05/26): 3/1 Damysus, 10/3 Zeus Olympios, 7/2 Notable Speech, 9/2 The Lion In Winter, 10/1 Sahlan, 11/1 More Thunder, 16/1 Jonquil, 40 Dancing Gemini, 66 Cicero's Gift, 100 Mississippi River.
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