Peter Snowden was expected to make a final decision late on Tuesday as to whether Bill Ritchie Handicap winner Drumbeats tackles Saturday's Epsom Handicap.After the five-year-old turned in a dominant display at Randwick last Saturday in the Group Three Bill Ritchie (1400m), Snowden said he would give consideration to a seven-day back-up into the Epsom despite it not being on the agenda.Drumbeats was originally headed towards the Epsom but when he missed a planned first-up run Snowden changed tac

Peter Snowden was expected to make a final decision late on Tuesday as to whether Bill Ritchie Handicap winner Drumbeats tackles Saturday's Epsom Handicap.

After the five-year-old turned in a dominant display at Randwick last Saturday in the Group Three Bill Ritchie (1400m), Snowden said he would give consideration to a seven-day back-up into the Epsom despite it not being on the agenda.

Drumbeats was originally headed towards the Epsom but when he missed a planned first-up run Snowden changed tack to include the Bill Ritchie followed by the Group One Toorak Handicap (1600m) in Melbourne two weeks later.

The entire was rated a doubtful Epsom runner on Tuesday but Snowden was still to finalise a decision after watching his strong team for go through their paces in trackwork at Warwick Farm.

"He (Drumbeats) is fine, I haven't made a decision yet and will think about it a bit more today but he's in good order," Snowden said.

"He won well (on Saturday). He's always had the ability but things have come against him at different times. He's as good as I've had him for quite a while and the tracks are staying firm which is a big plus for him."

The five-year-old son of Redoute's Choice finished fourth in this year's Doncaster Mile and fifth in last year's Epsom run on a heavy track.

There was no money for Drumbeats in Epsom betting on Tuesday as punters waited on a decision with acceptances for the $500,000 Group One 1600m event to be taken on Wednesday morning.

He remained on the fourth line at $9.

The Joe Pride-trained Neeson remained favourite on Tuesday but was joined at the head of betting by the John Thompson-trained Trusting at $6 with TAB Sportsbet.

Trusting got his campaign back on track in last Saturday's Group One George Main Stakes (1600m) when finishing second to star mare More Joyous.

The four-year-old had turned in a lacklustre performance at his previous start when 11th of 12 in the Cameron Handicap (1300m) at Newcastle.

Neeson hasn't raced since his luckless sixth in the Group Two Shannon Stakes (1500m) on September 18 but trainer Joe Pride has been keeping him ticking along nicely and said he was "spot-on" heading into Saturday.

"The hard work is there to be done on the weekend but he's always struck me as a horse that's got Group One potential and this is the first one we're going to run him in on Saturday," Pride said.

"There'll be plenty more to come and the horse has got plenty of maturing to do yet so if he doesn't win on Saturday all won't be lost. But I think he's an enormous chance."