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Campanologist can chime with Frankie

By Matt | July 4, 2008

CAMPANOLOGIST will be ridden by Frankie Dettori in Saturday’s Coral Eclipse Stakes at Sandown and is great each-way odds at 9/1 to win the mile-and-a-quarter contest.

Henry Cecil’s Phoenix Tower is likely to go off favourite in the race, and rightly so after he finished in front of Pipedreamer, who races here, and a creditable four lengths behind runaway winner Duke of Marmalade in the Prince of Wales Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Godolphin’s three-year-old has as good a chance as any, though – although he has yet to really prove himself at this level, though. He led from start to finish when winning the Group 2 King Edward VII Stakes in June, but this is a step up and Campanologist will be facing the kind of class he was up against in the Lingfield Derby Trial earlier in the year.

He was third that day, again ridden by Frankie, and his failure to find anything extra in the last furlong of the race will have disappointed the army of punters who backed him.

But the Eclipse Stakes, fortunately, is a furlong shorter than that trip, though – and neither Alessandro Volta and King of Rome, who finished less than a length in front of Campanologist at Lingfield, will be lining up at Sandown.

Apart from the favourite, serious opposition will come from Godolphin stablemate Literato, which will need some cut in the ground, and old-stager Maraahel – which makes some appeal at a best-priced 12/1.

But Frankie’s preference for Campanologist, and the price currently being offered on this son of Kingmambo, makes him my selection.

Selection