"I think our best chance of finding a spot is following her across, but I'm sort of going into the race thinking like I did with Vancouver going into the Golden Slipper," Berry said. "I'll ride him like the best horse in the race and ride him with plenty of confidence and don't make up your mind too early in the race.

"It's obviously not ideal drawing in 17, but it doesn't matter what race it is you've got to find positives from it. The positive is that he's won from 18 when he won the Doncaster and to be fair he's a horse that enjoys a bit of space. His best runs have been when he's allowed to take some time to come across.

I'll ride him like the best horse in the race and ride him with plenty of confidence

Tommy Berry

"If he happens to be bustled - a bit like he was last start - he doesn't seem to enjoy it and he can get a bit keen.

"There's plenty of room in a nice long run to the first corner and we'll have plenty of time to make up our mind where we want to be and with a nice speedy horse like Sunlight in front of us, she's obviously a class horse in the race, we can use those as positives."

BetEasy immediately wound Burtal's quote out to $5 on Tuesday with Classique Legend and Kolding (both $5.50) occupying the third line of betting.

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But Arcadia Queen, which beat only one horse home in the $14 million The Everest, took a firm grip on favouritism as owner-breeder Bob Peters chases a huge purse after a deflating result in the world's richest turf race.

"She's only four once and it's very hard to not back up in a race like this," Peter said. "If we had stopped we'd all be looking back saying, 'What if?' Everyone seems happy with her, but the race will tell us on Saturday."

Pint-sized Tasmanian The Inevitable ($9.50) was the only other horse in single figures on Tuesday as trainer Scott Brunton said the Silver Eagle winner was ready to run the race of his life at Rosehill.

"I'm pretty happy to be [in barrier three]," he said. "A little bloke like him ... it's nice to draw a good gate going out to 1500 [metres] and hopefully we get the right run.

"[Nash Rawiller] has been booked for the ride and it's good to have him on. He's hungry and no doubt he'll be even hungrier in The Everest as he had no luck on [Classique Legend]. We're happy to have him and fingers crossed."

The Golden Eagle was only one short of a capacity field after 17 runners were confirmed on Tuesday, including the overseas-trained Beat Le Bon, Never No More and I Am Superman.

GOLDEN EAGLE
1 Brutal (17) Tommy Berry $5
2 Classique Legend (1) Kerrin McEvoy $7.50
3 Kolding (4) Glen Boss $5.50
4 The Inevitable (3) Nash Rawiller $9.50
5 Gem Song (9) Brenton Avdulla $61
6 Zousain (12) Glyn Schofield $126
7 Behemoth (8) Todd Pannell $81
8 Military Zone (13) Andrew Adkins $51
9 Jonker (2) Robbie Dolan $201
10 Fun Fact (10) Brandon Lerena $201
11 Beat Le Bon (15) Pat Dobbs $71
12 Never No More (7) Pierre-Charles Boudot $31
13 I Am Superman (14) Leigh Roche $101
14 Sunlight (16) Luke Currie $26
15 Arcadia Queen (5) James McDonald $2.80
16 Mizzy (6) Jason Collett $31
17 Fasika (11) Rachel King $21