Montjeu, the beaten Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe favourite, faces a crucial work out this morning, but hopes are increasing that the French superstar may yet get the chance to end his career on a winning note in Saturday's Dubai Champion Stakes.
The colt's trainer, John Hammond, had said immediately after Montjeu's Arc fourth to Sinndar that he felt it unlikely his stable star would take in the Newmarket race but there could yet be a dramatic about-turn in the offing.
"The way the horse has gone since the race has been encouraging and we will see how he works in the morning. We will take a view then," said Hammond from his Chantilly base yesterday.
"The horse was a little stiff after the Arc but then so were most of the others who competed. He seems fine now. It's probably always wrong to give immediate judgements after a race. Horses are animals and they can change day by day. It's nature," Hammond added in reference to his post-Arc comments.
Montjeu also holds an entry in the Canadian International at Woodbine, Toronto, on Sunday but Hammond added significantly that the chance of soft ground at Newmarket "would not count against him".
However, he also stressed: "Montjeu is a possible to Newmarket, a possible for Canada or a possible for neither. We will all know more in the morning." Montjeu will retire to Coolmore Stud at the end of this season.
The Aidan O'Brien-trained Giant's Causeway will also retire to Coolmore and he was yesterday described by O'Brien as "a possible runner" in Saturday's £400,000 Newmarket showpiece.
"We will decide closer to the middle of the week if he will run in the Champion Stakes," said O'Brien, who has described the Breeders' Cup Classic at Churchill Downs next month as Giant's Causeway's big end-of-season objective. Both Montjeu and Giant's Causeway are owned by John Magnier and Michael Tabor.
O'Brien also has exactly half of the 20 entries left in the Dewhurst Stakes including the Middle Park winner Minardi and the unbeaten Hemingway who the Ballydoyle trainer yesterday described as just "a possible" for the Dewhurst. "It's a little early to decide for definite who will run," he added.
