Frankie Dettori believes Opinion Poll represents his best chance of a winner at Ascot today as he goes for glory in the Qipco British Champions Long Distance Cup.
A total of £3m is up for grabs on Britain's richest ever raceday, with Dettori keen to be a central figure, and the bookmakers tend to agree that Mahmood Al Zarooni's charge is the Italian's best hope as he is vying for favouritism.
Opinion Poll chased home Fame And Glory in the Gold Cup in June, and Dettori hopes he can turn the tables, having won twice and been second once since then.
He said: "He's an ultra consistent horse. He has three lengths to find with Fame And Glory, but he always wants to win and is probably my best chance. He is a very well balanced, solid horse who never runs a bad race.
"In the Gold Cup, Opinion Poll was ridden to get the two and a half miles, but back over two, we can get away, be a bit more aggressive and ride closer to the pace. I think the gap will be smaller this time as Fame And Glory's last two runs have not been so good."
Aidan O'Brien admits Fame And Glory has struggled to reach the heights he scaled in June
The Ballydoyle handler told At The Races: "His target for the whole season was the Ascot Gold Cup and he was trained hard for that. He was at a level of fitness that was very hard to get to and after giving so much he was always going to need a break.
"He ran a nice race at the Curragh and then in the Irish Leger he ran a nice race for four furlongs but then the pace went down and they quickened again.
"It's been very hard to get him back up to the level of fitness he had to win the Gold Cup, but we've had our eye on this race for a while, so hopefully he'll run well. It would be very unfair to ask him to go back up to that pitch again twice in a year as that was a different level altogether."
Andrew Balding, who runs Chiberta King, said: "He's had a long season but he still seems in good form at home. Hopefully he'll run a decent race, but he's got a bit to find. He'll like the ground, he stays two miles and he's run well at Ascot before."
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