A New Dawn, the forgotten member of Joey Ramsden’s powerful three-year-old line-up, takes on Lord Balmoral when he reappears in the All To Come Graduation Plate at Durbanville today – and it won’t be easy.

Donovan Dillon’s mount has to overcome a near six-month absence and, although the handicappers rated him 4kg behind Vaughan Marshall’s hope, he has to give his rival half a kilo.

Looking at what the R2 million Australian-bred beat over the Kenilworth 1 400m that day in April you might not rate him even as high as the official assessors but trainer and jockey left no-one in any doubt about the colt’s potential.

“He is a smashing horse, looking for this trip and more,” said Ramsden while Dillon added: “There is a lot of improvement to come. After every race he will get better and better.”

But the lesson of recent weeks is that the Ramsden class acts are vulnerable on their first runs back, particularly when they are conceding weight. Attenborough looked a certainty a furlong out only to falter and Table Bay could only manage third. Both started favourite and this time it could be the turn of Lord Balmoral to inflict the defeat

Also Australian-bred, but a fair bit cheaper at A$53,000, this colt justified odds of 1-3 on his second start in the manner of a future star, coming right away in the final 300m to win by four lengths easing up.

True, he was a big disappointment when he reappeared seven weeks ago, starting at even money and finishing a well-beaten sixth to a 25-1 shot. But he should be a different proposition this time.

In terms of sheer class these two dominate the race but Edict Of Nantes has done everything right in his last two starts, his stable is on song and if he were to complete the hat-trick it wouldn’t exactly be a shock of earthquake proportions.

Stable jockey Corne Orffer again has the mount but, a little surprisingly, he partners Varonella in the first while Greg Cheyne comes in for the mount on Brett Crawford’s other runner Varsity Cup whose form reads much better and is the selection.

Richard Fourie is on the sidelines after that horrific fall here on Wednesday when his mount Rock Stewart suffered a fatal cranial trauma. He had a number of fancied rides and Aldo Domeyer may benefit on Midtown Manhattan in race four. This one has the Crawford-trained Lady Diddeo to beat.

Michael Clower