Don't take the Lockinge market at face value - there are doubts concerning Big Rock and Inspiral

This is what the Lockinge is all about. The previous season’s best three-year-old miler clashing with one of the division’s established superstars. It’s Big Rock versus Inspiral and something special could be brewing in Berkshire.

This should be a rivalry we are celebrating throughout the season, although these milers have two separate sets of ideals. Big Rock’s crowning moment came when he broke the clock and the rest of the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes field in the mud at Ascot on Champions Day, whereas Inspiral cannot have the surface quick enough.

Plenty can change in 11 days for a racehorse and Inspiral proved that point emphatically last summer. On August 2 she finished an eased-down last of five on soft going in the Sussex Stakes, raising concerns over whether her days at the highest level were numbered. By August 13, we were dealing with a two-time Prix Jacques le Marois winner. Her superiority over Big Rock that day was evident on the slightly faster surface at Deauville, and the ground will be pivotal at Newbury.