The opening contest of the 2025 fixture is one of the highlights of the week, with the John and Thady Gosden-trained Lead Artist set to clash again with Newbury second Dancing Gemini, third-placed Rosallion and the fourth Notable Speech.
Both Notable Speech and Rosallion were Classic winners last year, taking the English and Irish 2000 Guineas respectively, and while John Gosden expects the pair to improve for their seasonal bows, he is backing Lead Artist to again make his presence felt.
He said: “Rosallion and Notable Speech are both going to come on for that Lockinge run and it is as good a Queen Anne as I have seen in a long time. Now those two have a race under their belt, it’s quite a humdinger to start the meeting with.
“Lead Artist has matured a lot mentally, which some of us do as we get older, and I like his enthusiasm as you can put him anywhere in a race, even though handy is where we would all like to be.”
Lead Artist has not run since that neck defeat of Roger Teal’s Dancing Gemini, but enjoyed a racecourse gallop at Newmarket on Wednesday morning under owner Juddmonte’s new retained rider Colin Keane.
Oisin Murphy was in the saddle for last month’s Lockinge and Gosden felt it was a worthwhile exercise for Keane to get a feel for his mount ahead of the Group One.
He added: “It’s been a long time since the Lockinge so it’s great to come here and of course there has been not much rain, so we have been pretty much stuck on the all-weather all spring.
“Colin hasn’t ridden him before and maybe hasn’t seen him before, so it was good he could come here and get a feel for him.
“He does hold his condition really well and he’s a well-covered, powerful horse. But that comes from the sire line and they do hold their condition incredibly well.
“We’ve been pleased with him and he’s had a nice blow here which should set him up nicely for next Tuesday.”
The Gosden team has a powerful second string in Sardinian Warrior, who was just denied in the Prix d’Ispahan last time out while last year’s second Docklands, the supplemented Carl Spackler, Lake Forest, Diego Velazquez, Quddwah and Cairo are also in the mix
