Last year's impressive winner Postponed (Roger Varian) heads 29 entries for the 2017 Investec Coronation Cup, worth £400,000, which this year is run on Friday, June 2, Ladies' Day, the first day of the Investec Derby Festival at Epsom Downs.
The Group One contest, which takes place over the same mile and a half distance as the British Classics, the G1 Investec Derby and the G1 Investec Oaks, reverts to its Friday slot, having taken place on the Saturday, Derby Day, between 2012 and 2016.
Postponed, the comfortable four and a half-length victor in 2016 from Found, was last seen out when third behind winner Jack Hobbs (John Gosden) and runner-up Seventh Heaven (Aidan O'Brien) in the G1 Dubai Sheema Classic at Meydan, UAE, on March 25.
Seventh Heaven, who won both the G1 Irish Oaks and G1 Yorkshire Oaks in 2016, is one of seven entries for Ireland's champion trainer Aidan O'Brien, who is the most successful handler in the Investec Coronation Cup with seven victories, headlined by three-time scorer St Nicholas Abbey.
The Ballydoyle septet also includes Highland Reel, who enjoyed a marvellous 2016 with G1 victories in the G1 King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes and the G1 Breeders' Cup Turf, last year's Investec Derby second and third, US Army Ranger and Idaho, plus Order Of St George, winner of the G1 Gold Cup at Royal Ascot and an excellent third to stablemate Found in the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. Deauville and Johannes Vermeer complete the O'Brien entries.
Another trainer with an excellent Investec Coronation Cup record is Andre Fabre, with the Frenchman having enjoyed six victories. Fabre's two entries in 2017 are Cloth Of Stars, who is unbeaten in two 2017 starts, most recently capturing the G2 Prix d'Harcourt at Chantilly on Sunday, and Maniaco, who was third in the same contest.
Cloth Of Stars is one five entries owned by Godolphin, alongside the 2015 Investec Derby runner-up Jack Hobbs, who impressed in the Dubai Sheema Classic. The Maktoum family's racing operation, successful with Daylami (1999) and Mutafaweq (2001) in the Investec Coronation Cup, also could call on last season's G1 Coral-Eclipse victor Hawkbill (Charlie Appleby) and Prize Money (Saeed bin Suroor), who got the better of Postponed by a neck in the G2 Dubai City Of Gold at Meydan on March 4.
Newmarket trainer Hugo Palmer is represented among the Investec Coronation Cup entries by a pair of unexposed four-year-olds in Crimean Tartar and To Be Wild.
The unbeaten Crimean Tartar, by Sea The Stars out of a Sadler's Wells' mare, annexed a 12-furlong maiden by seven lengths at Newmarket in July before ending 2016 with a smooth half-length victory over Chemical Charge in the Listed Wild Flower Stakes over the same distance on Polytrack at Kempton Park in November.
To Be Wild, by Big Bad Bob, also won on both his starts last year and has a rating of 104 following an impressive four-length victory in a hotly-contested class two handicap, with Josephine Gordon up at Doncaster in October.
Palmer said: "Crimean Tartar has had a good winter and the plan is to start him off in the John Porter Stakes at Newbury, a week on Saturday.
"His work is pleasing. He is quite a laidback individual and always has been. I am happy with where he is at the moment.
"He injured himself at two when the dream was that he was a Derby colt. He did not get there unfortunately, but we were pleased with his two performances last season.
"We were delighted with Kempton because he is homebred by the owner [Ibrahim Araci] in Turkey and, given that he is the first foal, we were keen to go straight from a maiden to stakes company and make it count. The race did not pan out ideally for him at all, but he quickened up nicely from the back of the field.
"To Be Wild is in good nick. He will start off in the valuable mile and a half handicap at Newcastle on Good Friday. I think he will keep on improving with racing as he is another lightly-raced horse who has had a few problems and taken his time to mature.
"Both horses have got some improving to do and we have to enter when we are dreaming rather than with the reality in front of us."
Other Investec Coronation Cup contenders include Journey (John Gosden), who bloomed into a mare of the highest class at end of last season with victory in the G1 QIPCO Fillies' & Mares' Stakes at Ascot, G1 Prince of Wales's Stakes hero My Dream Boat (Clive Cox) and the lightly-raced Midterm (Sir Michael Stoute).
The Grey Gatsby (Dermot Weld) is a dual G1 winner who has joined Dermot Weld for 2017, having previously been trained by Kevin Ryan.
There is a scratchings deadline for the Investec Coronation Cup on Tuesday, May 16 with the six-day confirmation and £25,000 supplementary entry stage following on Saturday, May 27.
Entries for the premier fillies' Classic, the Investec Oaks, are unveiled tomorrow, Thursday, April 13.
