Botanical

The high point so far came at York in May 2024, when Botanical landed a top-level Class 2 race in a way that turned heads. Jockey James Doyle described him as "pretty dominant," which is notable given there had been genuine concern beforehand about the ground drying out. He had looked unstoppable on wet, soft ground at Hamilton Park the previous summer on his first win, and the worry was that fast conditions would blunt him. They did not. That versatility on different surfaces, combined with the class of the York victory, suggested a horse with more still to offer.

His trainer at the time, Roger Varian, said after Hamilton that Botanical "seems like a Class 2 horse" — and he proved exactly that at York. Since then, though, the wins have dried up. Botanical has not won in his last six races, and his recent form reads 3-5-8-5-4-9, a sequence that reflects a horse racing regularly at the top level and finding it tough. When he has been tried in Class 1 company — the very best races in Britain — he has drawn a blank across four attempts.

He is now trained by Karl Burke at Coverham in North Yorkshire, a yard that has sent out 140 winners already this season, so Botanical has landed in capable hands. Burke, who received him from trainer George Boughey, clearly likes what he sees: he has described him as a "good, powerful galloper" and believes the horse is better over further than a mile. Intriguingly, Burke has floated the idea of targeting the Cambridgeshire — a famous autumn handicap — on soft or wet ground as a potential destination. That would make a lot of sense. Botanical has shown his best when the ground rides slow, and a strongly run mile and a quarter in October, with cut in the ground, could be exactly the conditions that bring the best out of him again. He raced just yesterday, so the team are clearly keeping him ticking over, and a big autumn target may already be taking shape.