Any more last night or this morning would be a bonus.

Hopefully, trainer John Gosden will deem that the ground has sufficient cut in it for the Pivotal colt to take his chance now in this afternoon’s King George. If he doesn’t, that’s the £75,000 supplementary entry fee down the drain. If he does, he has a real chance of winning it.

First things first, it is a cracking King George. All the older horses are here: a Breeders’ Cup Turf winner, a Hardwicke Stakes winner, an Irish Derby winner, an Eclipse winner. It is a pity that the Grand Prix de Paris winner ran a temperature yesterday and was ruled out, but there will be that. They are fragile creatures after all.

 Add in a trio from the Classic generation, as many from said generation as there has been in a decade, the Oaks winner, the King Edward VII Stakes winner and the Derby third. It is a deep deep King George, as deep as we have had for years. Even the 200/1 outsider is a dual Group 3 winner.

You could make a case for six or seven of the eight runners, and you would not be hugely surprised if any one of the top half-dozen in the market were to win it. But this betting game is all about the odds and, with the top two in the market appearing to be under-priced, the value maybe lie in siding against Telescope and Taghrooda.

 There is a lot to like about Eagle Top. The performance that he put up in winning the King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot was a performance that smacked of a top class individual. Okay, so he may have been helped by the fact that he was held up out the back off a breakneck pace, but the ease with which he moved up on the outside to join the front rank in the home straight was remarkable. Once there, once William Buick had taken a few strides to gather himself, adjust his sights and calculate his percentage, he picked up really impressively to come clear. He quickened twice.

So the King Edward VII opposition is a notch below the opposition that he will face today – Group 1 older horses instead of Group 2 three-year-olds – but it was a good King Edward. Adelaide was really well-backed, he was only just beaten by Mr Speaker in the Grade 1 Belmont Derby three weeks ago, when he was clear of the third horse, and Eagle Top beat him well, the front pair clear. There are reasons for believing that the winner can make the requisite step.

Firstly, he won the King Edward with plenty in hand. Secondly, that was just his third ever run, he still has bundles of scope for progression. Thirdly, when John Gosden and William Buick were asked after the King Edward about a possible tilt at the St Leger, they seemed to shy away from it. The unmistakable inference was that he was too good for the Leger.

Western Hymn was ultimately a non-runner in the King Edward, but Buick was set to ride Eagle Top anyway in preference to him. It seemed bizarre that he was set to ride a horse who had been beaten in a handicap at Leicester off a mark of 92 in preference to a Group 3 winner and a Derby sixth. But it wasn’t. The fact that Western Hymn went and won a Group 2 race at Maisons-Laffitte last Sunday only adds ballast to the Eagle Top case.

Three-year-olds do not have a great recent record in the King George on the face of it, with just one winner from the Classic generation in the last 10 years. However, they have had just 11 representatives in that time, and three of them were placed. As well as that, the one winner was Nathaniel who, like Eagle Top, was trained by John Gosden, will be ridden by William Buick, and won the King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot as a prelude to his King George bid.

Magician is a massive player, Mukhadram could be a little under-rated if he is as effective over a mile and a half as he is over 10 furlongs, and Trading Leather will have a big chance, back over a mile and a half, as long as the ground rides fast. However, Eagle Top is one of the most exciting horses in the line-up, he is proven over the course and distance, and he is worth backing at 5/1 or 11/2.

The rain will also help Watchable, another son of Pivotal, in the 29-runner International Handicap, and he is also worth backing at 14/1.

David O’Meara’s horse ran a cracker in the Buckingham Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot over today’s course and distance. That was the first time that he had run in a big-field handicap, and there is a chance that he found it all a little daunting. He could be even better today with that experience under his belt.

Daniel Tudhope, who rode Watchable in the Buckingham Palace in preference to the winner Louis The Pious, seemed to be surprised that his stable companion could beat him. It is probable that Watchable can be even better than he was at the Royal meeting.

The handicapper raised him just 1lb for his Buckingham Palace run, and that is more than fair. He does have three parts of a length to make up with today’s favourite Horsted Keynes on that run, but he is 2lb better off at the weights, which brings them closer. Horsted didn’t have a great run through the race that day, but Watchable has more scope for progression. That was just his fifth ever race, and he should be able to progress a fair way beyond hid handicap rating of 96.

The booking of Richard Hughes is a major positive, not just because Watchable will have the assistance of one of the best riders in the business, but also because it is a signal of intent from his trainer. Hughes has been jocked up since early in the week. It is probable that Tudhope would have struggled to do 8st 8lb, the weight that Watchable had in the long handicap, and the fact that O’Meara moved so early to secure Hughes’ services is significant.

You would have liked to have been drawn a little higher, but 19 is fine, he should be able to move towards the stands side from that draw, if that is where the pace is. The rain is the final piece of the jigsaw. It is obviously a hugely competitive race, but he could go close. It could be a Pivotal day.