There aren’t many better horses in training than Hamish when soft appears in the going description and this remarkably wet summer has probably left connections cock-a-hoop.
Hamish made it five wins on the spin when landing the John Porter at Newbury on good to soft in April and even got his ground on Oaks day at Epsom when second to Luxembourg in the Coronation Cup. That was the second time he has finished runner-up at the highest level on easy ground.
He drops a rung in class into a Group 2 contest here, has his ground once again, and sets a fearsome standard for which the others must aim, but that’s not to say their task is insurmountable.
Giavellotto is on the fringe of being a Group 1 horse himself and, while Hamish beat Al Qareem by only a neck in the John Porter, Giavellotto had that rival nine and a half lengths behind in the Yorkshire Cup in May. However, that was on much faster conditions than this.