Trained by Charlie Hills for Mrs Fitri Hay, the four-year-old gelding goes into Saturday's hugely valuable contest on the back of a fifth in the Stewards' Cup at Glorious Goodwood and a close-up third in the Great St Wilfrid Handicap at Ripon.
Sky Bet, who are now offering five places (1/5 odds) on Saturday's feature, make Shanghai Glory 10/1 and he's closely followed in the betting by Richard Fahey's Toscanini at 12/1.
He has been acting as pace-setter for top-class stablemate Ribchester for much of the season but returned to top form with a neck second to Talaayeb in the City Of York Stakes last month.
Toscanini, set to lead a typically strong challenge from the Fahey stable, is is consequently 2lb well-in for Saturday's big sprint, while others officially ahead of the handicapper having been raised since the weights were published include Intisaab (1lb), Edward Lewis (1lb) and our Antepost Angle selection Johnny Barnes (2lb) who is among those quoted at 14/1.
Bacchus is a 16/1 chance for Brian Meehan having landed a big handicap for three-year-olds at Newmarket last month, while others at the same price include Naggers, Ice Age, Ekhtiyaar and Tommy Taylor.
Hugo Palmer's Gifted Master would have to carry top weight after he incurred a 5lb penalty for winning a Listed race at Newmarket late last month, while other interesting horses to note include the Hills-trained Magical Memory and Sainted.
Ed Walker is hoping the assessor's leniency will help Aeolus in his quest to end a losing streak going back to June 2015. He may not have won since landing the Group Three Chipchase Stakes at Newcastle, but showed he still has what it takes when second in the Stewards' Cup over the same trip of six furlongs.
An experimental run over seven furlongs in the Group Three City of York Stakes on the Knavesmire failed, but Walker was happy the handicapper had left Aeolus on the same mark of 103 for the early-closing big sprint in Scotland.
Aeolus was ninth to Brando off a rating of 107 last September when Walker felt his choice of draw (19) turned out not to be a good one.
The Newmarket trainer said of the 25/1 shot: "He is in great form. This was the obvious race after his good run in the Stewards' Cup and we thought in the meantime we'd have a go over seven furlongs at York but he ran a very rare bad race there. We don't know why.
"Otherwise he's in very good form and fingers crossed I can pick a better draw than I did last year."
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