Racing: Hawk Wing's time to put all doubts to flight

The high summer highlights of the British racing calendar are in danger of being performed in unusually dim circumstances this season.

The King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot later this month will be all the poorer for a token representation from Ireland's great citadel of the Ballydoyle stables. Even earlier, racing's other great power of Godolphin offer just an undercard fighter at Sandown today when their Equerry takes on Hawk Wing in the Eclipse Stakes at sodden Sandown. The Group One race may turn into a damp squib.

Hawk Wing goes into the Eclipse as perhaps the best underachiever of modern times. Aidan O'Brien labelled the colt pre-season as a potential Triple Crown winner and there was only one way from there. However, if neither Rock Of Gibraltar or High Chaparral had been born then we would indeed be looking at the big horse as a monster.

As it is, he still needs a Group One victory at three to complete the glossy Coolmore portfolio that will be sent out to potential breeders at the end of this campaign. The only problem, it seems, may be a hidden one.

Certainly, there is not much gunpowder among his rivals. Equerry is an admirable as well as unbeaten beast, albeit in Group Three company thus far. No Excuse Needed, an even more qualified Group winner via Royal Ascot's Queen Anne Stakes, is almost certain to be absent from the line-up.

Michael Stoute, the colt's trainer, said his runner was "highly unlikely" yesterday, and that was before another wave of showers descended on Esher.

It may be then that only the enfeebling effects of two Classic journeys can deny Hawk Wing. The 2,000 Guineas does not probably qualify as it may be the horse thought he won the race, such was the distance between him and Rock Of Gibraltar on the other side of Newmarket's expansive pastures.

The Surrey Downs provided a different story. For the first time in his life Hawk Wing must have felt pain as he chased High Chaparral up the Epsom straight. Punters will feel a similar throb if the big horse reacts to the memory of that day.

Yet, by design or not, those behind the odds-on favourite have found a Group One race he might win even if he has been soiled by his experiences. Already they are taking prices on the winning distance of Hawk Wing (3.35). It is not a betting price, but we can just about settle on the result.

Sandown's opening contest is less clear cut but that means a better return about Palace Affair (next best 2.20). Toby Balding's filly is proven at this level, also in this ground and has a good draw. Three out of three ain't bad. "She likes cut in the ground and that's what made me run her," Balding said yesterday. "The plan was to go to York next Friday and she will probably do that as well.

"Five [furlongs] is her minimum trip, but over a stiff track like this she's more than entitled to be running. She's in very good form and will like the ground."

There are some big hitters in the following £100,000 race, notably Zucchero, who won the Lincoln, and Pentecost, the victor in Royal Ascot's Britannia Handicap. The latter's stablemate Dumaran will also magnetise the punters on his hat-trick attempt and that leaves possibilities about Torrid Kentavr (2.55) on Epsom form.

The belief in a divided nation gains further credence at Haydock, where horses have also been withdrawn because of the ground – firm ground. Shadow Dancing (2.40), like Hawk Wing, should win if she has not been bottomed by recent efforts, while more debate is available in the Old Newton Cup.

There are tigers in the jungle here, but it is worth following a horse which rewarded us each-way at Royal Ascot, the Duke Of Edinburgh Stakes third COUNSEL'S OPINION (nap 3.50).