The high achiever with the nickname ‘Chicken’

A Group 1 winner who has run at the top level eight times and at the Dubai World Cup meeting on three previous occasions, Giavellotto is a high-class performer by anyone’s standards.

It’s somewhat bizarre, then, to learn that the Marco Botti-trained seven-year-old goes by the nickname ‘chicken.’ Why?

No-one, it seems, can remember. “It’s just a name that Andrew [Morris, Head Lad] gave him,” says Lucie Botti, but Morris says, “he’s always been called that, ever since he was a youngster.”

The origins of the chicken nickname may have to remain a mystery, but it’s testament to Giavellotto’s durability that he makes his fourth World Cup night start on Saturday. First up came two goes at the G2 Gold Cup, finishing ninth and fifth, in 2023 and 2024, before a revelatory drop in trip and a fifth in the G1 Longines Dubai Sheema Classic last year. Prior to that was his career highlight, a superb win in the 2024 G1 Hong Kong Vase at Sha Tin.

For Morris, who has ridden Giavellotto since he was three, that was the pinnacle of his career so far.

“We are very proud of him – he’s just been a superstar,” he says. “The highlight was when he won the Hong Kong Vase and when he was second last year. He tried but just didn’t quite get there – it would have been a fairytale if he had.

“He’s been unlucky too, especially here. In the Gold Cup in 2024 his rein came undone, and he still wasn’t beaten very far. Then last year Oisin [Murphy, jockey] said he was too far back, but he still ran to a high level of form.”

Morris and Giavellotto have a seamless partnership, but the rider says he’s not as easy a ride as he appears.

“Now and again he has a bit of a wobble but he’s basically very straightforward if you leave him alone. He’s his own man.

“As he’s got older he’s got easier but as a youngster he was a handful. He travels so well because he likes the one-to-one attention.

“He’s soft. He thinks he’s Mr Tough Guy but really he likes the attention. He loves people.”