Rock is in a hard place

He's lean, mean and worth the best part of £30m in the eyes of Sir Alex Ferguson. No, not Rio Ferdinand but Rock of Gibraltar, who bids to become the first horse since the mighty Mill Reef 30 years ago to win six consecutive Group One races when he heads a field of six for the Sussex Stakes on the second day of Glorious Goodwood.

The Manchester United boss took up racehorse ownership on a relatively modest scale just four years ago as a release from the stresses of steering the Old Trafford juggernaut.

A mutually beneficial relationship with the powerful Coolmore team headed by Aidan O'Brien has seen him make a relentless rise to racing's equivalent of the Champions League, and Rock of Gibraltar will write himself a permanent place in the record books if he can continue his winning spree in Europe's most prestigious mile race.

Of course he can, but whether this will prove to be the mere lap of honour that the bookmakers suggest is another matter with Godolphin's Noverre and Sir Michael Stoute's No Excuse Needed in the line-up.

This pair dominated the finish to last year's Sussex, when Noverre produced an irresistible turn of foot under a patient ride from Frankie Dettori to score by two lengths, and the Godolphin colt has also come out on top by a similar margin in both their other meetings.

It's possible that No Excuse Needed has improved in the meantime based on his game defeat of Tillerman in the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot last time, but the forecast for thundery showers has to be a worry for supporters of a colt who has failed to fire on holding ground in the past and was withdrawn from the Eclipse at Sandown once the rains arrived at Sandown.