The first thing English trainer William Haggas did when he touched down in Sydney just after 7am was make a beeline to Canterbury to check on his Queen Elizabeth Stakes hope Dubai Honour.

And Haggas could not have been more relieved by what he saw ahead of what many are calling a two-horse heavyweight war between Dubai Honour and Anamoe at Randwick on Saturday.

“You can’t really explain what you look for, it’s just his general demeanour, a brightness in his eye - you can tell that just by looking at them,” Haggas told the Herald.

“I have a really good team. I feel I’m interfering, I don’t want to interfere because they know what they’re doing and I [almost] don’t want to get in their way. They’ve done terrifically well so far, and long may it continue.”

Haggas won the Queen Elizabeth Stakes twice with Addeybb, with the British ball of muscle twice lowering the colours of Verry Elleegant. Like Dubai Honour, Addeybb won the Ranvet in 2020 en route to his Queen Elizabeth success.

“Addeybb was a big, strong horse, this horse is a finer horse. He has all the parts in the right places, and he’s not a complicated horse - he’s pretty straightforward to train,” Haggas said.

“I first thought of this race in November, 2021. That’s when you need to start planning about coming to Sydney.

“His owner is Dubaian and he wanted a crack at the Sheema Classic in Dubai. The race is worth US$5 million, so we had a crack at that.