Pilsudski runs and the bookmakers take note

Michael Stoute finalised his Dubai Champion Stakes challenge yesterday by ruling out Singspiel but confirming Pilsudski a definite starter in Saturday's big race at Newmarket. The Newmarket trainer is keeping back his Juddmonte International Stakes winner for the Breeders' Cup at Hollywood Park on November 8th. But he committed last year's Breeders' Cup Turf winner Pilsudski to the Group One feature, two weeks after he vainly chased home Peintre Celebre in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.

Michael Kinane is likely to take the mount on Pilsudski in a race where Ireland's Aidan O'Brien will run Desert King.

"We will decide for definite tomorrow, and also the riding arrangements, but at the moment he is a runner," O'Brien said yesterday. No Slouch, who ran as a pacemaker for Desert King in the Irish Champion Stakes, will also take his place in the Champion line-up.

With the likely line-up clarified, bookmakers Coral became the first firm to open betting on an enthralling contest, installing Pilsudski 11 to 8 favourite.

Derby winner Benny The Dip, who finished behind him in the Coral-Eclipse Stakes, is a 4 to 1 chance with the French colt Loup Sauvage 5 to 1 and Frankie Dettori's mount Stowaway 6 to 1. They then bet 7 to 1 Desert King, 12 to 1 Bahhare, 14 to 1 Revoque, 25 to 1 Bijou d'Inde, 100 to 1 No Slouch.

The admirably tough Pilsudski will return to a mile and a quarter at Newmarket, a distance over which he has gained both his Group One successes this year.

The race is one of the few big races still to elude Stoute, for whom victory could clinch the British Flat trainer's championship. "We plan to run Pilsudski with Kinane riding. He seems to have taken his race in the Arc well. The ground wouldn't matter for him," he said.

"There was always a question about whether Singspiel took in the Champion before the Breeders' Cup but now he is definitely being aimed at the Breeders' Cup."

Riding arrangements for Benny The Dip have still to be confirmed while Peter Chapple-Hyam will delay a decision about Revoque's participation until the end of the week. The 2000 Guineas runner-up is also engaged in the Prix de la Foret at Longchamp on Sunday.

Impressionist will represent O'Brien in Saturday's Dewhurst Stakes also at Newmarket. The Ballydoyle trainer confirmed the colt, winner of the Group Three Futurity at the Curragh in late August, will be his representative against Xaar, Daggers Drawn and Central Park instead of Saratoga Springs. Kinane will ride Impressionist.