Doyen looks outstanding

RACING/Champion Stakes preview: If there is one race that Frankie Dettori and Godolphin know how to win it is today's Baileys Irish Champion Stakes and Doyen looks likely to start odds on to be their latest Leopardstown hero.

The last decade has seen the €1 million feature mature into possibly this country's most important race and it's surely no coincidence that in that same 10-year timespan a Godolphin-owned runner has won out five times.

The streak started with the Michael Kinane ridden Cezanne in 1994 and if Doyen comes out on top he will send Dettori to the top of the jockeys tree alongside Kinane with five Champion Stakes victories in total.

What would Dettori, Sheikh Mohammed and the rest of the boys in blue give for a similar Derby record, but right now there is no horse exercising their minds like Doyen.

An easy Hardwicke Stakes win was followed by a searingly impressive success in the King George and that sort of form doesn't seem to have vanished as on Tuesday the colt put in a workout that Dettori described as "scary".

When the great Italian showman starts reaching for the superlatives it always pays to ignore the flash stuff and listen to the hardened professional behind the public face.

Yesterday, Dettori claimed: "The horse looks magnificent and he feels better now than he did before the King George."

Daylami (1999) and Swain (1998) both won the King George before coming to Leopardstown and Fantastic Light (2001) was runner-up at Ascot. Doyen may never have run over 10 furlongs before, but that should not be a factor.

What might be a factor for some of his oppostion, however, is the ground which was "good to firm" yesterday but with showers expected up to noon today that could change.

"The Met' people say that we could get up to between five and 10 millimetres of rain and that would make it good ground," said Leopardstown's racing manager, Tom Burke yesterday. "But the showers are so hit and miss, it's difficult to call. We might get nothing."

Hoping fervently that the rain does stay away will be the teams surrounding Rakti and Azamour. Both horses are at their best on fast ground and along with the Irish Derby winner Grey Swallow they represent the likely main opposition to Doyen.

Both Irish-trained three-year-olds are tackling a mile and a quarter for the first time with Grey Swallow dropping from a mile and a half and Azamour being upped from the mile of his St James's Palace success. If the ground stays quick Azamour might be the better of the two this afternoon.

During the week Dermot Weld was at pains to stress that the Arc is an important target for Grey Swallow and it could be that the grey colt won't be at a peak until three weeks time.

In contrast John Oxx has had this race as a target for some time but his worry is that a lack of a run for almost three months might impact on Azamour's sharpness.

If there is a question mark over Rakti it concerns his ability to settle in the race while the question mark over Powerscourt is a more straight forward one of is he quite good enough?

In contrast the only punctuation mark over Doyen seems to be a dirty great exclamation mark which is likely to be pressed into service to emphasise some of the superlatives floating around after his expected smooth victory.

TV3.30<

BAILEYS IRISH CHAMPION STAKES (GROUP 1) of €1,000,000 (€ 579000). 1m abt 2f. <1 211 DOYEN(3) (Godolphin S bin Suroor 4,9-4 L Dettori 2 397373 IMPERIAL DANCER(7) (D5) (P Taplin) M Channon 6, 9-4 S Hitchcott 3 21-25-85 MILLSTREET(5) (D) (Godolphin) S bin Suroor 5, 9-4 T E Durcan 4 304412 NORSE DANCER(1) (J C Smith) D Elsworth 4, 9-4 J F Egan 5 3-12524 POWERSCOURT(2) (CD) (Bl) (Mrs J Magnier) A P O'Brien 4, 9-4 J P Spencer 6 21-18 RAKTI(4) (D2) (G A Tanaka) M Jarvis 5, 9-4 P Robinson 7 11-321 AZAMOUR(8) (H H Aga Khan) J M Oxx 3, 8-11 M J Kinane 8 11-1431 GREY SWALLOW(6) (C2) (Mrs R Quinn) D K Weld 3, 8-11 P J Smullen BETTING FORECAST - 11/10 Doyen, 4 Grey Swallow, Rakti, 9/2 Azamour, 14 Powerscourt, 16 Norse Dancer, 50 Imperial Dancer, 100 Millstreet.

LAST YEAR - HIGH CHAPARRAL, 4 9-4 M J Kinane 4/1 (A P O'Brien)

TONY SWEENEY'S TWO AGAINST THE FIELD: Of the top four in the betting only Rakti has proved himself a star at this intermediate distance of 10f and the records show that he is five times a distance winner, the highlight being a clear cut 2l defeat of Carnival Dancer in the Emirates Airline Champion Stakes at Newmarket. This was in its way a remarkable transformation for a horse that 12 months earlier refused to go into stalls to participate in the very same event. If he qualifies for any prize money today it will bring his career earnings past the 2 million mark.

His only rival to have amassed more than a million is Doyen representing the Godolphin team that have won this race four times in the last five years, and each time with a horse aged four or five years. He too has matured wonderfully well and carried off the King George and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot by 3ls from Hard Buck. Although the distance was 1m 4f even his harshest critic would have to concede that at 10f he was going extraordinarily well.

SELECTION: RAKTI. NB: Doyen.