LEAR SPEAR, one of the most improved horses in training, will lead a two-pronged attack for Hampshire trainer David Elsworth in the Group 1 Dubai Champion Stakes on Saturday.

The four-year-old, who won the Prince of Wales's Stakes at Royal Ascot in June and the Select Stakes at Goodwood on his most recent run, had been an intended runner in the Prix Dollar earlier this month but missed the Longchamp event due to the heavy ground.

Elsworth, who will be bidding to win the Dubai Champion Stakes for a second time following In The Groove's victory in 1990, also plans to run Dante Stakes hero Salford Express in this £400,000 contest which has been switched to the July Course due to the construction of the Millennium Grandstand on the Rowley Mile at Newmarket.

The careers of Lear Spear and Salford Express have gone in different directions since they ran on the same card at Epsom's Derby Day in June. While Lear Spear has shown dramatic improvement since winning the Diomed Stakes that day, the form of Salford Express has tailed off after he trailed home last but one in the Derby.

Provided the ground stays on the fast side, Lear Spear will be a leading contender to win his first Group 1 race - he was last in the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown in July following his Royal Ascot exertions - and he is 9-2 fourth favourite with the top bookmakers to carry off the prize. Salford Express is a 40-1 chance.

Last year's Derby winner High-Rise, who sidestepped the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in favour of a crack at the ten-furlong Dubai Champion Stakes, is another intended runner.

Fasliyev, the leading two-year-old of the season so far following impressive victories in Coventry Stakes and the Prix Morny, was last night ruled out of the £200,000 Thoroughbred Corporation Dewhurst Stakes by his Irish trainer Aidan O'Brien.

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