Raymond Tusk set for Sandown outing

Raymond Tusk looks set to go to Sandown for Saturday’s Coral-Eclipse after it was initially revealed the field would be small.

The Richard Hannon-trained three-year-old followed up an impressive April debut at Newbury by going to a novice event at Newmarket last month, where he finished behind the Charlie Appleby-trained Loxley.

This weekend’s Group One race, with Investec Derby hero Masar eyeing up more success, appears a long shot for Raymond Tusk but connections have given valid reasons for his participation.

Tim Palin, racing manager for the owners Middleham Park Racing, said: “We’re going to go to Sandown and the reasoning is dead simple. It looked like being a small field on Monday morning. I think we were the fifth horse entered at 11.24am and then Aidan O’Brien entered his five before the 12pm deadline.

“It looks like there might be five or six runners, we’ve paid about £5,000 to get this far and we felt we might as well let him take his chance and all the owners will have a good day out.

“You get over £10,000 if you’re sixth and if he over-achieves and picks up £85,000 for finishing third or something then fantastic.

“Richard is adamant he’s a Group horse. Whether that’s Group Three, Group Two or Group One, we’ll have to wait and see.”