Is Expert Eye beatable? All you need to know about the Dewhurst

3.00 Newmarket
Darley Dewhurst Stakes | Group 1 | 7f | 2yo colts and fillies | ITV/RUK

Record-chasing Aidan O'Brien saddles nearly half the field including the race's only Group 1 winner but it is the Sir Michael Stoute-trained Expert Eye who has hogged all the attention in the build-up to one of the season's most significant two-year-old prizes.

Stoute gained his only victory in the race 31 years ago with Ajdal but the trainer, better known for his success with older horses, has had few opportunities to work with similarly precocious material in recent campaigns until Expert Eye came along.

The son of Acclamation followed a winning debut at Newbury with a hugely impressive victory in the Group 2 Vintage Stakes at Goodwood, posting a winning margin of four and a half lengths over a field containing future Group 2 Mill Reef Stakes winner James Garfield and Seahenge, who landed the Group 2 Champagne Stakes at Doncaster.

He missed a start in the National Stakes at the Curragh after picking up an infection but nevertheless looks set to start an odds-on favourite for the Juddmonte team, the only racing and breeding operation that consistently challenges Coolmore-Ballydoyle at the top level.

He is 4-1 favourite for next year's Qipco 2,000 Guineas. Only one of Stoute's five Guineas winners contested the Dewhurst and that was King's Best, who finished last of five in 1999.

CLASSIC WINNERS TO HAVE COME FROM DEWHURST
Last ten years

2016 Churchill (won 2,000 Guineas & Irish 2,000 Guineas)
2012 Dawn Approach (2,000 Guineas)
2010 Frankel (2,000 Guineas)
2007 New Approach (Derby)

Stoute said: "I've had precocious two-year-olds in the past but I don’t seem to get them nowadays. It’s an imbalance I don’t desire but it’s a fact. Now this fellow has come along and I'm very happy to have him. He’s naturally precocious, very well balanced, well developed and mature.

"You'd have to say he’s the best two-year-old I've had for quite a while. He’s been pretty natural from the beginning. Before we ran him we knew he was pretty smart as he has always shown speed and been very athletic.

"And then, when we were preparing him for Goodwood, we began to realise just how good he was – we knew he would win there but you can never be sure about the opposition and we didn’t know he would win in the style he did.

"The form has worked out but this is quite a while later. We've had plenty of time to prepare him for this, so there will be no excuses."

Emaraaty takes big jump

At a cost of 2.6 million guineas Emaraaty was bought with expectations that he would develop into a Group 1 colt and his connections are wasting no time trying to find out if they have invested wisely.

He caught the eye when fourth on his debut at Sandown and was a handsome winner of his next start in a novice event at Newbury to earn a crack at this level.

Trainer John Gosden said: "Obviously it's a big jump from a maiden to a Group 1 and it's a bold move by his owner to run but he's a horse we like.

"He'll probably appreciate a mile in time as his mother was a mile-and-a-quarter horse and it'll be nice to run him on some nice ground before we put him away for next year. He got boxed in first time out at Sandown and is still learning."

Emaraaty (Jim Crowley) saunters home at Newbury last monthCredit: Mark Cranham

Flag flying for O'Brien

Aidan O'Brien is on the cusp of breaking Bobby Frankel's record of 25 top-level successes in one year but has the chance to pull off another rare feat with US Navy Flag.

Victory for the Middle Park Stakes winner will match the achievement of Diesis, who was the last to do the double in 1982, and give O'Brien his fourth win in the race in five years.

It is a task that proved too much for both Dark Angel and Dream Ahead, before the Middle Park and Dewhurst were temporarily moved to the same day, but is clearly believed to be within the scope of US Navy Flag, the choice of Ryan Moore this time.

O'Brien said: "US Navy Flag has been very consistent and is a tough, hardy colt. We were delighted with his Middle Park win and, while this will be his first time going seven furlongs, we've always thought he'd get further than six."

Aidan O'Brien runs US Navy Flag (left), Seahenge, Mendelssohn and ThreeandfourpenceCredit: Mark Cranham

Moore rode the better-fancied Sioux Nation into sixth when US Navy Flag beat stablemate Fleet Nation in the Middle Park, so it would be wrong to overlook the rest of the O'Brien team. His other runners are impressive Champagne Stakes winner Seahenge, Threeandfourpence, the brother of Brave Anna and Hit It A Bomb, and Mendelssohn, who is blinkered for the first time.

O'Brien added: "Seahenge was very green on his first two starts but he got things together well to win the Champagne Stakes last time and we've been happy with him since. Mendelssohn was disappointing at Doncaster. We've tried blinkers on him at home and they've helped him concentrate better. We've been happy with Threeandfourpence since his maiden win at Fairyhouse and, while he's stepping up a lot in class, he's in good form."

What the others say

Mark Johnston, trainer of Cardsharp
He has been very consistent and is moving up a furlong. It looked last time like it would suit him as he was coming back at the death. He's strangely unfancied but if he runs his usual race you can be sure anything that beats him will be thereabouts. He's never been far away in any race he has run.

Richard Fahey, trainer of Great Prospector
He doesn't have the Group form that some of these have but I think seven furlongs on good ground will suit him better and I'd be happy if he ran in the first four.

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