Aidan O’Brien’s charge won all three starts as a juvenile, including the Dewhurst at this track, and is red-hot favourite for the first Classic of the season. The trainer has also left Diego Velazquez, Henry Longfellow and River Tiber in the race.
Richard Hannon could be double-handed with second favourite Rosallion and recent Craven winner Haatem, while Notable Speech is Charlie Appleby’s sole representative.
Night Raider has been impressive in two starts on the all-weather for Karl Burke, Royal Lodge winner Ghostwriter was unbeaten in three starts at two for trainer Clive Cox, while Dewhurst second Alyanaabi is set to renew rivalry with City Of Troy.
Burke said of the dual Southwell winner Night Raider on a Monday media call organised by the QIPCO British Champions Series in conjunction with The Jockey Club: "He's a lovely animal and whatever he does on Saturday he'll keep improving through the year, he's got a lot of scope, and I'm sure he's a Group 1 horse in the making.
"Saturday probably comes a bit too soon for him and it's a high-class race obviously as well, but he's a horse with a lot of ability.
"I don't think I've seen a horse work better than him in the 23 years we've been up here (in Middleham). He's just got an awfully high cruising-speed and he can quicken off it as well. He's obviously proven on the surface at Southwell and he's done the majority of his work here on polytrack.
"Clifford Lee who rode him this morning says it's a bit like driving a car with 10 gears, every time you move on him he goes forward. I wouldn't mind having a bet that there won't be anything travelling better than him around a furlong and a half out. We'll see what he does after that.
"He's got a lot to prove and he's got a lot of things against him - it's his first run of turf and his first proper gallop on turf was at the Craven meeting there the other week. He came out of that really well, we took him for experience and he ran down the hill well. I'm looking forward to seeing him run.
"There's no real pressure with him - there are horses going into it with bigger reputations than him - hopefully he can go and burst a few balloons."
Iberian, Inisherin, Task Force and Ten Bob Tony complete the possible field.
