Gold Cup plans went awry for Qatar Racing's Pallasator at Royal Ascot recently, but he gets a quick chance to make a winning return at Sandown on Saturday.

The Sir Mark Prescott-trained gelding tackles the Listed Coral Marathon (16.20) over two miles, and is one of 14 declared horses. Oisin Murphy, who kept the big horse cool during the preliminaries at the Royal Meeting, is once again set to ride.

Plans to get Pallasator onto the heels of the pace-setters in the Gold Cup soon came unstuck, but Murphy was blameless, says Sir Mark, who adds: ‚"The horse didn't enjoy a rugger scrum in midfield!

‚"His 5lb penalty makes life tough, but he remains in good form.‚"