James Toller believes Saigon has earned his step up to Pattern company as he bids to keep his unbeaten record intact in the Tanqueray Richmond Stakes at Glorious Goodwood on Friday.

The Royal Applause colt made a winning debut in a Yarmouth maiden before storming home to strike at Listed level at Newbury last time out.

The juvenile is certain to face an even stiffer test on the Sussex Downs but Toller could not be happier with his star turn heading into the race.

“So far, Saigon has done nothing wrong. You can only beat what is put in front of you and I hope his form entitles him to have a shot at a race like the Richmond Stakes,” said the Newmarket handler.

“The Newbury race was a pretty hot race, I think it was probably more like a Group Three than a Listed race.

“The form never works out exactly but you can get a line through it that puts him in the Richmond with a squeak – or a bit better than a squeak, hopefully.

“He seems well. It will be his third race in about four weeks, so we have kept him on the go, but he seems to have come out of that Newbury race very well, we have been happy enough with him and this race seems the logical next step.

“So far he has been very straightforward. A lot of people tell you that the better horses are easier to train than the bad ones and so far it has all been plain sailing with him.”

The likely favourite is Richard Hannon’s Harbour Watch, so impressive in two starts at Salisbury and Newmarket.

The champion trainer has won the last three renewals of the Group Two contest with Prolific, Dick Turpin and Libranno and he is confident Harbour Watch, who carries the same colours as stable star Canford Cliffs, can add his name to the list.

“We think that Harbour Watch is very good. He is a big, strong colt with bags of scope and while both his wins were gained in the soft he should go on anything,” Hannon said on his website.

“We were actually concerned how he would cope with the conditions when it rained cats and dogs at Salisbury first time out, but he won as well as he had worked and then he followed up in similarly impressive fashion at Newmarket.

“He is one of the best that we have got, and, hopefully, he’ll take the next step up the ladder in his stride.”

Hannon has a second string in Eureka, far from disgraced in finishing fifth in the Weatherbys Super Sprint last time out.

The trainer added: “We also run Eureka, who won well over six furlongs at Nottingham and Salisbury but found everything happening a bit quick when trying the five in the Super Sprint at Newbury. He will appreciate going back up in trip.”

Parc De Launay has looked well above average when scoring on his first couple of starts but his trainer Tom Tate has warned he will only run his exciting youngster if ground conditions are in his favour.

“He’s in good order and when I was down there on Tuesday there was plenty of ease in the ground. If that maintains then I’ll run him,” said Tate.

“If it dries up and ends up on the fast side of good then I won’t run him, so we’ll see.

“He’s ready to run so hopefully conditions will be all right.

“It’s a step up for him but they’ve got to get on with it if they’re going to.

“I hope he can run a big race.”

The Mick Channon-trained Factory Time won his first couple of starts before placing third behind Saigon at Newbury.

Bruce Raymond, racing manager for owner Jaber Abdullah, believes there are reasons to believe Factory Time can reverse the placings.

“Mick is hopeful he might be able to make up that couple of lengths as that day at Newbury he followed the pacemaker over on the far side of the track and the race developed up the centre,” said Raymond.

“That obviously didn’t help his cause and we’re hoping for a different result tomorrow.

“He’s pretty useful and we think he’s a little bit better than his form at Newbury.

“It’s a good race but he’s in with a chance.”