Scottish has reignited his Caulfield Cup hopes with victory in a Group Three race at York.
The four-year-old was bought by Godolphin out of Andrew Balding’s yard earlier in the year and sent to Charlie Appleby with a trip to Australia in mind.
Those plans were momentarily put on hold when he was a beaten favourite in the Rose of Lancaster at Haydock.
But he made amends with a 1-1/4 length win over Yorker in Saturday’s 1800m-race.
“He came out of his Haydock run well and the form had been franked by the winner in France,” Appleby said.
“We told William to be positive because with the strong tail-wind he’d be hard to peg back.
“He won’t get into the Cox Plate this year so we’ll look at the Caulfield Cup.
“He’s only been beaten twice over a mile-and-a-half (2400m) when he’s got his ground and one of those was by Highland Reel.
“We bought him with Australia in mind and he’s a nice horse to have about the place.”
