Luca Cumani has sent out the winner of the totesport Ebor twice in the last decade - Mephisto in 2004 and Vicious Circle in '99 - and the Newmarket-based handler holds a strong hand if the antepost market for this prestigious handicap is anything to go by, with his charges Purple Moon (a best-priced 13/2 favourite) and Samurai Way (12/1) both prominent in bookies' lists.
However, it's another trainer, Henry Cecil, whom I expect to be celebrating at around 2.45pm on August 22. The master of Warren Place, who has been resurgent this season following a few years in the doldrums, has an exceptional candidate for this 14-furlong contest in the shape of Tranquil Tiger, who is 12/1 with NPbet.
The major concern regarding the selection is how he'll behave in the prelims, as he really didn't fancy it at Goodwood last time when refusing to go to post and Ted Durcan had to dismount and virtually drag the colt to the 12-furlong start. But that was the first time that Tranquil Tiger has turned a hair ahead of a race and I'm inclined to forgive him for what quite simply appeared to be 'one of those days'.
Incredibly, despite his antics at the Sussex track, the son of Selkirk, to his credit, ran a highly creditable race. Although finishing eighth of the nine runners in the Group 3 Gordon Stakes, Tranquil Tiger was just three and a half lengths adrift of the winner, Yellowstone, a horse that had previously been beaten just three lengths into fourth behind Notnowcato, Authorized and George Washington in the Coral-Eclipse Stakes.
