Desperate field sizes for the Eclipse expose flaws in the Pattern - but at least this year there's a good excuse

Any temptation to lament the likely field size for Saturday’s Coral-Eclipse Stakes should be firmly resisted. It isn’t the sort of race to attract a double-digit cast, especially when a three-year-old of City Of Troy’s calibre receives 10lb from older males and 7lb from older females.

There has been the odd exception. A pair of consecutive runnings from 2003 saw 15 go to post and 12 the year after, yet it was surely no coincidence neither race featured a Derby winner receiving lumps of weight.

In fact, field sizes held up well throughout the noughties before they fell away quite drastically. Again, it cannot be coincidence that happened in tandem with an expanding European Pattern.