Time Test on course for Eclipse date as conditions improve

Roger Charlton insists he has every intention of running Time Test in Saturday's Coral-Eclipse at Sandown.

The Beckhampton handler reports plans for the four-year-old remain unchanged and he is on course to tackle the mile-and-a-quarter Group One prize.

Having missed an intended outing in the Prince of Wales's Stakes at Royal Ascot earlier this month on account of the soft ground, the son of Dubawi has been restricted to just one start this season which resulted in a narrow victory in the Brigadier Gerard Stakes at the Esher course in May.

Charlton said: "The plan is to run Time Test, as it was before. Everything has gone to plan and the horse is absolutely fine. His last bit of work went perfectly well.

"It's all been said before about why he hasn't run and people can read into what they like, but it is frustrating.

"Let's wait until Saturday to see what the ground is like as there is no point guessing.

"It could be an exciting clash with The Gurkha, but I am not going to make any bold statements about it."

Although the round course is officially good to soft at present, clerk of the course Andrew Cooper expects conditions to be closer to good on Saturday, should the forecast be correct.

Cooper said: "I think we continue to improve here. In terms of a going report, at the moment I've left the round course as good to soft as that is what it was when I walked it this morning.

"Since then we have had some patchy drizzle, but no more than that. It is a pretty overcast day and I am not anticipating us getting a great deal in terms of rain.

"It doesn't look like it is going to be as soft as we thought earlier in the week based on where we were and the forecast we have been given.

"Almost every day we are getting some degree of unsettled weather with the chance of a shower, but nothing of any great amounts of rain.

"In the short term, we will be on the soft side of good and we will probably be in that sort of territory come Friday.

"It is certainly not looking like it is going to be soft ground. I suspect it might be on the slow side of good. That is looking the likely outcome."