Dubai: Two-time British champion jockey Richard Hughes is hoping to use previous knowledge of The Fugue to thwart her bid to win the Coral-Eclipse Stakes (G1) at Sandown Park in Surrey, England, on Saturday.

Hughes partnered John Gosden’s stable flag-bearer to win the Nassau Stakes (G1) at Goodwood in 2012 and says that he experienced first-hand The Fugue’s strength and weakness, which he hopes to exploit when partnering 2,000 Guineas (G1) victor Night Of Thunder this weekend.

The two favourites are among a star-studded list of 12 middle-distance specialists lining up for one of Britain’s most high-profile all-age races.

“The Fugue likes to come off a very strong pace and she quickens really well. I’ve ridden her and in a slow-run race she doesn’t quicken quite as well,” Hughes told the Sportinglife.

“Night Of Thunder, if it’s tactical, will probably have a better turn of foot than The Fugue.

“We’re under no illusions, we know how good The Fugue is, but if there was plenty of rain about before racing and on the day it would be a different story.”

Hughes, 41, won the British jockeys championship in 2012 and 2013 and is widely regarded as a tactical genius, a talent that could be a decisive factor in the weight-for-age contest, where three-year-old Night Of Thunder is in receipt of 11 pounds from the older males and eight pounds from The Fugue.

“I’ll have in the back of my mind that it’s his first run over a mile and two. He’ll love the uphill rise at the finish and I think it’s going to be tactical enough with only five or six runners. I’ll drop him in and come with a run,” said Hughes while offering a glimpse into the tactics he intends to employ aboard Emirati businessman Saeed Manana’s colt in a bid to win his first Eclipse silverware.

Meanwhile, the threat of showers could rob the race of star appeal, with Gosden warning that he was ‘not frightened’ of taking The Fugue out if the ground was on the wrong side of good.

“If it’s on the fast side, we’re happy. If it suddenly gets a massive downpour and it changes, we’re not frightened of taking her out,” the trainer said.

While the current track conditions at Sandown are good and good to soft in places, 5mm and 10mm of rain have been predicted for the weekend

“It’s a tricky one,” Andrew Cooper, clerk of the course told the Guardian. “The question is how fast the course will be if we don’t water before Friday. Ground on the fast side of good is fine but we’re looking at proper drying temperatures. We might need to put on 2mm to 3mm, which is what you would lose in a day in any case.”

This year’s renewal of the Eclipse has also attracted Godolphin’s fast-ground colt True Story, Dubai World Cup (G1) runner-up Mukhadram, Epsom Derby runner-up Kingston Hill and ex-American trained and dual Grade 1 scorer Verrazano.