Dubai Honour and Goliath, two of Europe's classiest old stagers, are the headline acts for the Sept. 27 Preis von Europa (G1) going 2,400 meters (about 1 1/2 miles) at Cologne, with both having shown they retain plenty of talent in recent outings.
A month on from sending out 9-year-old Al Aasy to score at group 2 level, William Haggas will be hopeful that the year-younger Dubai Honour can add to his four career victories in group 1s, having only just been run down late in the Tancred Stakes (G1) on his latest trip down in April to Sydney. Since returning to Europe, he's finished third in a pair of stakes races.
At the age of 6, Goliath showed that he still has an impressive turn of foot when granted a decent pace to run when sweeping aside his rivals in the Grand Prix de Chantilly (G2) earlier this season, and he looked to be coming with a strong challenge in the Hardwicke Stakes (G2) before Christophe Soumillon's right boot slipped out of his stirrup iron. Francis-Henri Graffard trains for Resolute Bloodstock and Philip Baron Von Ullmann.
Soumillon and Tom Marquand both will make the trip to Germany for a reprise of the two horses' meeting in last season's Grosser Preis von Baden (G1), in which Goliath came out on top.
Straight was third in that race and, on his first start in 385 days, gets the assistance of Luke Morris in the saddle.
