Twice Over bids to be true champion

The Henry Cecil-trained five-year-old, owned by Khalid Abdullah, will attempt to become the first dual winner of the ten-furlong showpiece since Alborada in 1998 and 1999.

As expected, Godolphin have added Queen Elizabeth II Stakes winner Poet's Voice to the field at a cost of 30,000. Arlington Million hero Debussy is one of three hopefuls, along with Tazeez and Alwaary, from the John Gosden stable.

Irish trainer Aidan O'Brien is pinning his hopes on the progressive Await The Dawn. A strong French entry is headed by Eric Libaud's Vision D'Etat, who bounced back to form with victory at Deauville in August following a disappointing effort in the Dubai World Cup in March.

Criquette Head-Maarek has Prix du Moulin winner Fuisse, while Shimraan, trained by Alain de Royer-Dupre, completes the French entry.

Recent Dundalk scorer Gitano Hernando has been left in by Marco Botti, with dual Oaks winner Snow Fairy also in the mix for the Ed Dunlop team.

Completing the list are Sir Michael Stoute's Glass Harmonium, Michael Bell's Wigmore Hall and the Michael Jarvis-trained pair of Rainbow Peak and Sri Putra.

Ante-post favourite Admiral Barry is among a field of 41 left in the totesport.com Cesarewitch on the same card. Eoin Griffin's five-year-old is among a powerful Irish challenge along with two from Dermot Weld's stable, Universal Truth and Majestic Concorde, and the Tom Hogan-trained Mount Helicon.

Meanwhile, Diamond Harry is pencilled in to reappear in the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury, despite Denman's likely presence meaning he will have to run from out of the handicap.

With the 182-rated Denman due to bid for an historic third win in the race, Nick Williams' seven-year-old will be 4lb wrong at the weights. Having come up just short against Big Buck's over hurdles, Diamond Harry won his first two starts over fences before being pulled-up in the RSA Chase.

As well as Diamond Harry, Williams has some exciting ammunition with which to go to war, including Grade One winners Reve De Sivola and Me Voici.

"Diamond Harry is more likely to run in the Hennessy but I wish Denman wasn't," said Williams. "We are now going to be 4lb wrong so it doesn't suit me for Denman to run at all, I'd much rather he ran off his correct weight but I've got to live with that."

l The Newcastle meeting scheduled for today was abandoned yesterday due to false patches of ground, leaving only two fixtures at Huntingdon and Leicester.

The Gosforth Park track has been deemed unraceable after a lengthy inspection, which began at 10.30am. "I'm afraid we've had to abandon," confirmed clerk of the course James Armstrong."We've had a long deliberation but, as ever, it boils down to safety and it is just not improving."