Curb your enthusiasm, boys, and let's have a closer look at this London Gold Cup tomorrow.
1. We've been here before with an SMS 'group horse in a handicap'. Two years ago, to be precise, when Hillstar (Stoute and Moore) went off at 10/11 and got beaten by High Troja. The trouble then - and possibly now - is that he was indeed a group horse, but at 12 furlongs and upwards, and by 2014 was running in races like the Ormonde.
2. Moore has certainly been booked for Time Test, but he's ridden Dissolution before, and the gossip suggests that he would have been on him tomorrow if he could do the weight.
3. Time Test has no headgear on tomorrow. I can't prove this one way or the other, but when a 3yo of SMS runs well in furniture and then they leave it off, it's usually an experiment. If he doesn't improve on his previous runs, expect to see the hood (or more) back on for the next race.
4. The ground tomorrow will probably be quicker than it was today (Fri). That might not be a hindrance, but his action suggests that he'd prefer cut.
All in all, this horse looks to me like a work in progress. He may well win tomorrow - and 5/1 isn't a silly price in a 12-horse field - but I doubt if he's been laid out for it, whereas the same owner's Dissolution (still got a Derby entry, I think, though that seems a bit exotic) isn't going to be weighted in the 80s again and must surely want to capitalise on today's weight. If Barney brings the money home, I'll applaud with the rest, but I really don't think this is a wheelbarrow job.