O'Brien raises Eclipse stakes as Constitution River and Hawk Mountain clash

Aidan O’Brien has raised the temperature on Saturday’s Coral-Eclipse by sending both Constitution River and Hawk Mountain to Sandown for the 1m2f Group 1, turning what looked like a routine Ballydoyle entry into a rematch with real bite. O’Brien had been leaning toward only one of the pair making the trip, so the decision to run both changes the race’s shape as well as its market.

The official racecard lists seven runners from a maximum field of 17 for the £1,000,000 race, with £560,200 going to the winner. Constitution River is the even-money favorite, Hawk Mountain is 11/2, Gethin is 5/1 and Saddadd is 15/2, while A Boy Named Susie and King’s Gambit are also in the line-up. That is enough quality to make this more than a Ballydoyle private match, and enough depth to make the first mile-and-a-quarter championship test of the summer look properly competitive.

The pair arrive at Sandown straight from the French Derby, where Constitution River won the 186th Prix du Jockey Club at Chantilly by three-quarters of a length from Hawk Mountain, with Montreal third in a rare all-Aidan O’Brien podium. France Galop recorded 5,300 spectators for the race, and its official report said Christophe Soumillon, aboard Hawk Mountain, was the first to challenge before Constitution River came down the outside and proved too strong. At The Races had noted that Constitution River was drawn 15 of 16 when he won, which makes that Chantilly result look even more authoritative, not less.

Hawk Mountain is not just a place-holder in the rematch. He won the Futurity Trophy at Doncaster as a juvenile, giving him Group 1 credentials long before this summer, and he had even been supplemented for the German Derby before Ballydoyle redirected him to Sandown. Constitution River, meanwhile, had already advertised himself in the Dee Stakes before landing Chantilly, so the form line between the pair is no accident. O’Brien is chasing his 10th Eclipse win, with Racing Post crediting him with nine already, and a fourth straight victory would extend the sequence he has built with Paddington, City of Troy and Delacroix. The Eclipse now has the look of a race that will either confirm Constitution River’s French Derby form or show that Hawk Mountain and the rest have more to give at the end of a searching summer mile and a quarter.