Aidan O'Brien will saddle three of the seven runners in his pursuit of a 13th victory in the Group 1 contest

Aidan O'Brien will send out three of the seven contenders as he chases a 13th triumph in the William Hill Futurity Trophy at Doncaster on Saturday - and aims to take a big step to retaining his trainer's championship.

Victory in the season's final Group One would significantly bolster the Ballydoyle maestro's bid for a ninth British champion trainer crown, with market leader Noble Exhibit accompanied by stablemates Giant Sequoia and Sergei Diaghilev.

Noble Exhibit showed plenty of promise when third on his Curragh bow in August and has subsequently delivered victories at Punchestown and in the Group Two Beresford Stakes, again at the Curragh four weeks ago.

Giant Sequoia captured the Futurity Stakes in Ireland but must respond after a lacklustre effort when only sixth in the National Stakes, while Sergei Diaghilev returns to action a fortnight after coming up just a neck short of Rock Montreal in the Autumn Stakes at Newmarket.

Andrew Balding pins his championship aspirations on the once-raced Salisbury maiden scorer Gran Dia.

Despite securing a Group One success with Mount Atlas on British Champions Day at Ascot last weekend, the Kingsclere handler acknowledged O'Brien now holds the upper hand in the title battle.

Nevertheless, Balding has previously enjoyed notable success in Town Moor's £275,000 prize courtesy of Elm Park in 2014 and Kameko in 2019, with Gran Dia's connections eager to gauge their colt's credentials at elite level before the campaign concludes.

Sean Graham, racing manager for Tony Bloom who owns the 380,000 guineas buy alongside Ian McAleavy, said: "After he won at Salisbury we discussed the options and in reality there is a shortage of races he could run in. They've been very happy with him at Andrew's since Salisbury and the plan is to run.

"He's a horse who has won a maiden going straight into a Group One and we're under no illusions how difficult that will be, but we want to give him a second run before the end of the year and we're short of options unless you wanted to travel with him.

"We're going to be taking on battle-hardened two-year-olds who have runs under their belt and our fellow has only had one, so it will be very much a learning curve for him. But we hope he goes there and shows enough to think we can be dreaming with him over the winter."

British hopes appear strongest with Karl Burke's Burning Up, victorious twice at Haydock and Royal Lodge runner-up, while joint-trainer William Muir speaks highly of Breacher. The latter looks well-suited to the mile distance following his third-place finish behind Desert Castle and Sergei Diaghilev in the Champagne Stakes at Doncaster during St Leger festival.

Rounding out the compact yet quality field is Al Hudaiba, whose impressive record shows four victories from six outings, including a Grade One triumph at Woodbine last month.