Toormore faces big challenge as champion

Richard Hannon's unbeaten juvenile Toormore has been crowned champion two-year-old in the European Thoroughbred Rankings (PA )

Toormore followed in the shadows of Frankel and Dawn Approach when he was ranked the unbeaten champion two-year-old of Europe, but an uncrowned king did not take long to challenge the fragility of his claims to follow in their Classic footsteps.

Richard Hannon's National Stakes winner topped the European Thoroughbred Rankings rated 122. John Gosden's Kingman, also unbeaten in a campaign curtailed by injury, was rated just 111, but his proxy Emirates Flyer, left trailing on Sandown's scorched turf by the 2,000 Guineas favourite in the Solario Stakes, quickly suggested this may prove a nonsense with a decisive success in the UAE 2,000 Guineas trial at Meydan.

The 1,000 Guineas joint-favourite Chriselliam was no sooner acclaimed the leading juvenile filly of 2013 than it emerged her Classic preparation has been held up by treatment for a poisoned foot.

The older rankings were headed by the Arc winner Treve and Australian sprinter Black Caviar, both on 130.