Pat Smullen knows it will not be easy to topple Golden Horn in Saturday's King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes but in Snow Sky he believes he has the right horse to pull off a shock.
The Michael Stoute-trained four-year-old was supplemented for Ascot's summer highlight after a startling all-the-way win in the Hardwicke Stakes.
Smullen retains the ride this weekend and is excited about his first ever mount in the race.
"My fella stays well and I admit he surprised me with the turn of foot he showed last time," Smullen told The Sun.
"We made all the running and he quickened again.
"It just goes to show how horses can develop a bit of speed as they get older. He has a touch of class.
"To ride in big races like this is what I have been working for all my life.
"We will be happy to make it again but I doubt we will get such a handy lead this time.
"Golden Horn is the best three-year-old by a long way and we all have to give him weight.
"It won't be easy but shocks do happen at this time of year.
"I am convinced Snow Sky is good enough to win a big race like this one."
Snow Sky is owned by Khalid Abdullah, who also owns the Andre Fabre-trained Flintshire, a standing dish in Group Ones over a mile and a half all over the world.
Abdullah's racing manager Teddy Grimthorpe told The Telegraph: "If you'd have asked me after the Coronation Cup about Flintshire I'd have said he was disappointing, but he bounced back and all but nailed Treve in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud.
"We know Flintshire - he's reliably consistent and has very few blips. Snow Sky, strangely, is more of an unknown. He ran well in the Leger, had a good battle with Brown Panther at York and we had a stamina-laden programme in mind but he worked well before Ascot prompting us to go for the Hardwicke.
"When he won that so well, we asked if we could go up a step again."
