Desert Crown the star attraction at Sandown

Desert Crown is all set for his highly-anticipated comeback in the Racehorse Lotto Brigadier Gerard Stakes at Sandown on Thursday evening.

The Michael Stoute-trained Derby hero has been seen just three times in his career, but has made a huge impression regardless.

He won a maiden on debut and then took last year's Dante at York en route to a memorable victory in the premier Classic itself.

Injury curtailed his season after his two-and-a-half-length victory in the blue riband, however, and Sandown’s Group Three event is his first run since that memorable day last June.

Despite an absence of 355 days, Bruce Raymond, racing manager to owner Saeed Suhail, is expecting the Nathaniel colt’s unbeaten status to be maintained.

He said: "I’m more than hopeful. It would be a huge upset were he to be beaten.

"Of course, they can all be beaten, but I don’t expect him to be.

"Michael is definitely 100% happy with him, he’s fine, he’s working good and while there’s enough improvement to come, he’s fit enough to do himself justice.

"He was so impressive in the Derby. The race was over two out."

Stoute, too, expressed his satisfaction at how his star has done in the build-up to his return.

He said: "Desert Crown has progressed well over the last few weeks, and it will be good to get him back to work."

The same owner and trainer will also be represented by Solid Stone, a Group winner in his own right who will set the pace for his stablemate.

"We’ve got a pacemaker in Solid Stone to make sure it’s not a crawl," said Raymond.

"He leads him in all his work and he didn’t run at Chester recently just so he could run in this."

Also on the comeback trail is Owen Burrows’ Hukum, an impressive winner of the Coronation Cup at Epsom last season before injury