Gran Premio del Jockey Club Preview: Can Godolphin Retrieve the prize?

Retrieve winning at Newmarket recently

Timeform's International Editor Chris Williams looks forward to this 12-furlong Group 1 from Milan.

Saeed bin Suroor has won the Gran Premio del Jockey Club seven times in the last twelve runnings and relies on Retrieve in this year's renewal (Sunday, 16:00). The Australian-bred Retrieve was runner-up in the Rosehill Guineas and the Australian Derby, both Group 1 races, in his native land, but hasn't quite had the same impact in his eight races in Britain, though he has won twice, including a listed race at Newmarket on his most recent outing.

Retrieve's main rivals on Sunday are all trained in Germany: Novellist, Araldo and Orsino. Novellist won the Union-Rennen at Cologne in June and has since finished in the frame in Deutsches Derby (beaten half a length by Pastorius) and Grosser Preis von Baden (fourth to Danedream).

Araldo won three races, including a listed contest at Baden-Baden, before putting up his best effort when a close third to Girolamo in the Preis von Europa at Cologne last month. The five-year-old Orsino has improved this year, winning four times, notably in the Premio Federico Tesio here last month, when he beat Branderburgo by half a length. Saratoga Black was a below-par fifth that day, but has better form, including when beating Estejo in the Premio Ambrosiano here in April.

Lord Chaparral has put up the two best efforts of his career when placed in this race in the past two years (beaten a short head by Rainbow Peak in 2010 and a length and a half when third to Godolphin's Campanologist in 2011) but his other form falls some way short of that.

Timeform weight-adjusted ratings:

128 Novellist
128 Araldo
127 Retrieve
124 Orsino
123 Branderburgo
122 Saratoga Black
117 Lord Chaparral