Earth Shot

The recent form reads 1-2-1-2 across the last four runs, which means Earth Shot has either won or finished second in every single race it has ever entered. Not once has it finished out of the top two. For a three-year-old still early in its career, that kind of consistency is genuinely striking — it suggests a horse that competes hard every time and rarely has a bad day.

Behind the horse is William Haggas, one of the most respected trainers in British racing and based, like Earth Shot itself, in Newmarket. His yard has sent out 170 winners already this season — a number that reflects not just quantity but quality, because operating at that volume with consistent results means the whole operation is working. Haggas has a long record of developing young horses carefully and getting the best out of them at the right moment. The fact that he has pointed Earth Shot at Ascot — one of the most prestigious tracks in the country — and come away with a winner says something about how highly the team thinks of this horse.

With only four races on the clock, Earth Shot is still very much a work in progress, and there is plenty we do not yet know. But a 50% win rate — winning 2 in every 4 races — combined with a runner-up finish in the other two, and a victory at Ascot just days ago, makes this one of the more exciting young horses in training right now. The next few months will tell us how high the ceiling really is.