Sand Gazelle

Trained by John and Thady Gosden out of their Newmarket yard, Sand Gazelle is in excellent hands. The Gosdens are one of the most powerful operations in British racing, and the numbers back that up: 140 winners sent out this season alone. Getting a horse to win at Class 1 level is the kind of result that defines a yard's season, and Sand Gazelle delivered exactly that at York.

What makes the profile slightly complicated is the recent form. The last six runs read 16-6-7-7-2-1, meaning that big York win in July was sandwiched between a runner-up finish and a sequence of mid-field efforts before it. At the top level, Sand Gazelle has won 1 from 4 races — that is a 25% win rate in the toughest company, which is genuinely strong. But the horse has also shown it can go quiet between its better days, so the trick for the team is catching it at its sharpest.

Sand Gazelle first announced itself with a win at Kempton Park in December 2024, which got the ball rolling, and the York success eight months later confirmed this is a horse that can operate at the highest level when the moment is right. It raced just one day ago, so it is firmly in the middle of its campaign. Whether it can rediscover the form that lit up York is the question worth watching — but a horse that has already beaten the best once has every reason to do it again.