Appleby expecting Path Of Thunder to be 'very competitive' in Listed feature

EBF Stallions King Richard III Stakes (Listed) | 4yo+ | 7f | ITV/RTV

There is no desperate "A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!" about the King Richard III Stakes nowadays, it seems. Just back the favourite and collect.

The last five market leaders have all won: with only three runners, surely the race will be even more of an open and shut case this time?

Would that life was always so simple and penniless bookmakers in Leicester were forced to seek alternative employment.

Backing the favourite today would appear to mean supporting Path Of Thunder, who was a shade of odds-on in some early lists. But is he the right market leader and the best horse in the race?

He is certainly useful, winning a good mile handicap at Newmarket last summer and a conditions race in Dubai this winter and matching his best Racing Post Rating, albeit unable to threaten an easy winner, when dropped to this 7f trip at Meydan last time.

Yet he has 6lb to find on RPRs with Happy Power, whose Diamond Jubilee Stakes fourth and Lennox Stakes third are the best form in the field - and whose recent Lady Wulfruna second also rates higher than anything the favourite has achieved.

Happy Power: top rated on Racing Post RatingsCredit: Mark Cranham (racingpost.com/photos)

And while Aratus has a little to find with that pair, he has won the last four of just five career outings - all at this trip - in the style of a horse with more to offer, always just doing enough to keep his successful run going.

He looks the sort to progress further this season and has the scope to reach this level, if not higher.

Of course, the best horse does not always prevail in a three-runner affair when tactics can be key – twice in the last four years the front-runner has proved impossible to catch in a small field here.

Path Of Thunder and Happy Power have both been ridden from the front in the past, though that is more due to the fact that many a different approach is tried during the career of an experienced horse rather than that forcing the pace necessarily suits them.

Aratus will lack for nothing in nous from his jockey, with Adam Kirby every bit as wily as William Buick and David Probert in a tactical battle of wits.

A gelding operation may well have cured the keenness he has shown, without robbing him of the turn of speed that could give him every chance of making a fine start to what may prove a glorious summer for this son of Free Eagle.

What they say

Clive Cox, trainer of Aratus
He's the lowest-rated of them but he progressed every step of the way last year. He's progressed physically and I'm looking forward to getting him back on track.

Alastair Donald, racing manager to King Power Racing, owners of Happy Power
In a perfect world we'd love a bit of rain but it was pretty quick in Saudi Arabia, where he ran a great race from a terrible draw. A small field should suit him.

Charlie Appleby, trainer of Path Of Thunder
He's come back from Dubai in good order. He put up some nice performances there. Any repeat of that sort of form would make him probably the horse to beat. Hopefully, he'll be very competitive.

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