Cox Plate preview: Harry Eustace expects big Docklands run

The four-year-old chased home Charyn in the Queen Anne at Royal Ascot in June and was last seen finishing seventh behind City Of Troy in the Juddmonte International at York.

He's landed the inside draw at the weekend, but his trainer isn't overly-concerned.

He told Tuesday's Nick Luck Daily Podcast: “We’ve ended up in stall one which is better than nine and probably less fancied two, three or four but it’s a slightly different system for the Cox Plate. They randomly draw the horses and the owners pick where they want to go so you feel like you have some control but we were left with the choice of one or seven and decided to go the shortest way round.

“From one we’ll probably be more positive and try and sit one pitch further forward than we normally would. The pace angles are drawn a little bit wider and we’d hope there’d be a bit of middle ground we could land in behind the likes of Pride Of Jenni and Royal Patronage. We’ll have to see how it pans out on the day but we’ll that up to Blake (Shinn).

“He gave him a racecourse gallop last Thursday which went as well as we could hope. Blake is coming in on Wednesday to have another sit on him, we’re just going to pop him out of the stalls and after that we’ll get to raceday and find out where we match up.

“We're very confident we’re going to be competitive. We finished second to Charyn at Ascot and that form keeps stacking up and I hope its good enough to go and be more than competitive here.”

York was Docklands' only run so far over 10 furlongs but it's a trip Eustace expects him to excel over.

“I have to say my honest gut feeling is he's going to be a better horse at a mile-and-a-quarter. From the day he wont he Britannia I was looking forward to the time he ran over ten furlongs. We’ve taken our time in doing it for a few reasons.

“He's obviously very strong on the straight track at Ascot over a mile which suited very well this year, maybe because I felt the mile division came up a little bit weak. The Guineas winners from last year retired. It maybe made the older horses a bit weak while next year that might not be the case,

“Hus run in the Juddmonte was solid with possible excuses in that we gave ground in a big runner field and it’s hard to do. We've ended up not finishing too far away from the eventual Arc winner and I do think he’ll have more runs at a mile-and-a-quarter than a mile next year."

And that's very likely to be back in Europe.

“At the moment the plan is he’ll have a second run, hopefully in the Champion Stakes, two weeks later in Oz and then come home via Hong Kong. We’ll wait and see after each run, one how he pulls up and what happens, but the long term plan is that at the moment," the Newmarket handler confirmed.

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