QE ii Cup still clear as mud after draw

The tactical Rubik's Cube of the Audemars Piguet Queen Elizabeth II Cup on Sunday remains unsolved after the barrier draw left the possible speed runners drawn widest and dealt confusion to some of the best local hopes.

Classy Aidan O'Brien-trained four-year-old Treasure Beach looked the only logical leader and that was still the case after the Irish visitor drew the outside of the 13 runners. How the horse's connections respond to the widest alley, at a start that virtually begins on a turn, will now hold the key to any hopes of even a fair tempo.

'You draw what you draw,' O'Brien's representative, James Kinane, said. 'Aidan will decide what the horse does from there.'

Despite such an awkward 2,000m starting point, only three winners this century have drawn inside barier six, but the beneficiaries of yesterday's draw looked to be the Mike De Kock-trained Viscount Nelson (barrier four) and the David Ferraris-trained Sweet Orange (two).

The latter has been beaten in contentious circumstances in the Classic Cup and Derby from wide barriers and now is drawn to be wherever jockey Weichong Marwing wants him on Sunday.

'I'm very happy,' said Marwing. 'He was due for a change of luck at the gates. He's certainly got the gate speed to race much handier and, for a change, he won't be doing it so hard.'

Viscount Nelson has been racing from the rear in five starts in Dubai since joining De Kock, several from outside gates including his late-finishing third in the Godolphin Mile last start.