RACING/Champion Stakes News: Hawk Wing has been installed an odds-on favourite for Saturday's Food Island Champion Stakes at Leopardstown but Godolphin are bringing out the heavy guns to meet him.
Sheikh Mohammed's operation have won three of the last four runnings of the race and yesterday committed Best Of The Bests along with the stable number one Grandera.
Jamie Spencer will ride the Prix d'Ispahan winner, with Frankie Dettori on Grandera, but Godolphin insist Best Of The Bests is not a pacemaker.
"He has done well since his last race and is a proven Group One performer.
It's a good opportunity. This is the most suitable race for him and he is not running as a pacemaker," said spokesman Simon Crisford.
Best Of The Bests finished runner-up to Giant's Causeway in the Champion Stakes two years ago, a renewal that interrupted Godolphin's recent dominance of the race.
Another €100,000 supplementary entry at yesterday's forfeit stage was the Irish Oaks heroine Margarula, in whom Daniel Wildenstein recently purchased a half share.
That meant a total of 13 are left in the €1.1 million race, with Aidan O'Brien responsible for seven of them. They include High Chaparral and Rock Of Gibraltar, but the plan to run Hawk Wing along with Sholokov and Castle Gandolfo remains his preferred option.
"The horses are coming back after a holiday so we will have to play things by ear but they seem in good form," O'Brien said yesterday.
Bookmakers reacted by making the Eclipse winner Hawk Wing a clear favourite, with Paddy Power going 4 to 6 about the Ballydoyle star.
Margarula has been installed a 12 to 1 shot for her first start since springing a 33 to 1 shock in July's Oaks.
The Jim Bolger-trained filly worked at the Curragh after racing on Sunday and her trainer reported: "She is in good form and worked nicely for her." Bolger won the race in 1986 with the John Reid-ridden Park Express.
Another possible runner is Michael Stoute's No Excuse Needed, who would be bidding to win his first race over a mile and a quarter.
The four-year-old has only tackled the trip twice before after some high profile successes over a mile.
No Excuse Needed first ran over a mile and a quarter in the Dubai Champion Stakes last autumn but he finished some distance behind the winner Nayef on unsuitable soft ground.
The Queen Anne Stakes victor tried the trip for a second time on his last run in the Juddmonte International at York but he finished a distant last behind Nayef again.
But Joe Mercer, racing manager to owner Maktoum Al Maktoum, explained there was an excuse for his last outing.
He said: "Both times he has tried the trip something has gone wrong with him. For some reason at York he finished up lame.
"He must of knocked himself or something and he had little puncture mark so he might have struck into himself.
"He's bounced back though and he's a possible runner but he wants good, fast ground."
Saturday's main supporting race, the Matron Stakes over a mile, has attracted 17 entries including the Irish 1,000 Guineas heroine Gossamer.
However, she is more likely to run in Sunday's Prix du Moulin at Longchamp because of the likelihood of soft ground in Paris.
The Desmond Stakes winner Dress To Thrill is an intended runner for Dermot Weld.
CHAMPION STAKES BETTING (Powers): 4-6 Hawk Wing, 11-4 Grandera, 8 Sholokov, 12 Margarula, 14 Rebelline and Best Of The Bests, 16 No Excuse Needed, 25 Common World, 33 Castle Gandolfo, 100 Ice Dancer and Twentytwoandchange.
