Teal keen to roll the dice as Dancing Gemini returns in red hot Sandown clash

Roger Teal is under no illusions about the task facing Dancing Gemini as he prepares to take on multiple Group One winner Field Of Gold and the unbeaten Zeus Olympios in his bid for back-to-back victories in the bet365 Mile at Sandown on Friday.

Dancing Gemini made a fantastic start to last season, winning the Doncaster Mile and this Group Two contest 12 months ago before being narrowly denied Group One glory in the Lockinge at Newbury.

After finishing third in the Prix Jacques le Marois midsummer, his form tailed off in the latter stages of the campaign, but Teal believes his stable star is in excellent shape ahead of his return to action in Esher.

He said: “It’s like a Group One apart from the prize-money, isn’t it? It’s a practice run for the Lockinge I’d say.

“I’m really happy with our horse, he’s wintered well and he’s been working nicely.

“Obviously we’d had the run at Doncaster last year, but if he can put in a similar performance to what he did in this race last season you wouldn’t rule him out.”

The likely favourite is John and Thady Gosden’s Field Of Gold, who was brilliant in winning the Craven Stakes, the Irish 2,000 Guineas and the St James’s Palace Stakes last season and will bid to get his career back on track after injury plagued the end of his three-year-old campaign.

Karl Burke’s Zeus Olympios has not yet been tested at Group One level, but looked every inch a top-class horse in the making in winning each of his four starts last year, particularly when rounding off the season with victory over Opera Ballo – who is again in opposition on Friday and has since won twice at Meydan – in the Joel Stakes at Newmarket.

Cicero’s Gift – a shock 100-1 winner of last season’s QEII for Charlie Hills – and Andrew Balding’s Never So Brave complete the quality field.

The first of three Group races on the card is the bet365 Gordon Richards Stakes, which features the Balding-trained Almeric and Devil’s Advocate from the Gosden yard but not Ed Walker’s ante-post favourite Almaqam.

Aidan O’Brien’s Action is the headline act in the bet365 Classic Trial, with promising types like Wise Prince (Gosdens) and Raaheeb (Owen Burrows) among his six rivals.