Will it be Calandagan's King George again?

King George and Queen Elizabeth Stakes preview: Ascot tips from Sporting Life Podcast team

Horse Racing

Wed July 22, 2026 · 16h ago

Fran Berry, Graham Cunningham and Billy Nash answer the big questions ahead of the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot.

How solid a favourite is Calandagan?

Billy Nash: I think he absolutely deserves to be market leader. He obviously won the race last year and has a tremendous record at Ascot. He hasn’t quite hit those heights this season yet in terms of ratings but he was impressive last time out in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud and looked like he was coming back to his very best and everything is set up for him to do so on Saturday.

As things stand he’s three pounds clear on Timeform ratings and that’s ahead of Minnie Hauk, who we’re not quite sure is running at this stage. Next in the list is Masquerade Ball, and Benvenuto Cellini on 132p has about six pounds to find with Calandagan. He is an improving three-year-old and technically unbeaten this season, who knows what would have happened had he been allowed to take his chance in a soft ground Derby... we’ll never know.

But he’s going the right way, is sure to be a big player but the only thing I will say about the King George, like a lot of things this summer, is that it’s not coming home.

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Graham Cunningham: The faith that Barzalona shows in this horse’s turn of foot now is absolutely unshakable. At Meydan and in Saint-Cloud he seemed to me at least to ask him dramatically difficult questions, tactically. I know they will be conscious it looks a significantly deeper race this weekend, but he seems to think this horse can make up ground from wherever he is in the field and still run them down.

Fran Berry: He’s really refined it now to perfection on Calandagan and he’s seemingly not afraid to allow good horses first run and pounce down the outside. We saw that in the Champion Stakes last October and we saw what he can do going the other way at Meydan and last year when Kalpana got a good lead on him in his race. He was initially in no big rush but picked her up and she wasn’t stopping on that occasion.

Calandagan is a tremendous horse and Barzalona has the total backing of the team; they’re a good combination to watch. He’ll have a very good pace to aim at and it will be fascinating to see when he plays his hand but we know how late he left it last October.

A quick line on his stable companion and a former winner of the race, Goliath. Where does he fit in?

GC: I’m hoping somewhere just behind Kalpana. Unlike Billy, I’m not ruling out the possibility of this prize staying at home. As for Goliath, he’s six - Hukum, Enable and Swain all won this race at that age so it can be done. He was 25/1 when he won this in 2024, helped by the fact that not for the first time at Ascot Coolmore got the pace plan wrong and went really, really hard which I think was against Auguste Rodin on the day.

Goliath thrived on it and the two horses he beat two years ago were Bluestocking and Rebel's Romance. So given that pace, he’s that kind of good. I’m not sure he's quite at that level now. He won that Group race at Chantilly and ran well in a high-quality Hardwicke despite Soumillon losing his irons late on. But my opinion on Goliath is he’s probably a length or a length-and-a-half behind Kalpana and I’m hoping he runs well this weekend because I think wherever he finishes, Kalpana will be just in front of him.

Goliath and Christophe Soumillon win the King George

Masquerade Ball is a big runner from Japan. What can you tell us about him, Fran?

FB: He’s by a horse called Duramente who won the Japanese Guineas over ten furlongs and was a brilliant winner of the Derby at Tokyo Racecourse over a mile-and-a-half but unfortunately got beat on debut at the same track…when ridden by me!

He had a tendency at the gates to rear which took a while to work out but the trainer, who I had a great association with, didn’t speak to me for a week afterwards.

It was an epic Japan Cup last year in which he got touched off by Calandagan. Barzalona couldn’t have written a better pace scenario for his horse, he stalked Christophe Lemaire every step of the way. Everywhere he went, the local legend, Barzalona followed. They had an epic duel. Masquerade Ball was a three-year-old then and has no five-pound weight-for-age allowance with Calandagan this time, but I do think there’s improvement to come from him.

He used to lean left off the bridle and looked a little unfurnished physically which a lot of Japanese horses can do. Off the back of a cracking run, when he had a lot of ground to make up at Sha Tin, stepping up to a mile-and-a-half again, you could see an improved performance on Saturday. He’ll need to find more but he has his ground and a strong gallop to aim at and it's a big coup for Ascot to have got him over. We’re only going to get see him once on the European calendar but it’s great we get to see him at all.

Calandagan beats Masquerade Ball (right) in the Japan Cup: Copyright of the Japan Racing Association (JRA)

GC: 20 years ago Heart's Cry came from Japan to challenge for the King George and he’d been beaten a whisker in a thrilling finish to the Japan Cup and was ridden by Christophe Lemaire. 20 years on from being beaten in the Japan Cup and King George on Heart's Cry, Lemaire has the chance to make amends but it has to be a very different tactical ride to the one he gave Masquerade Ball in the QEII Cup.

They haven’t invented a horse in history who can give Romantic Warrior that sort of soft passage and hope to run by him. He ran home in 21.67, Masquerade Ball, that day and still never laid a glove on Romantic Warrior. That stat alone tells you the jockey had him in an impossible position. It’s a mile-and-a-half this weekend, there should be a stronger gallop and it was a crawl in Hong Kong. So we should see the real Masquerade Ball and that makes him a danger to the lot of them.

How good do you think Bevenuto Cellini really is?

BN: That’s the $64,000 question. He has looked good on his two proper starts this year and the Irish Derby worked out well for him where he set the record straight with Christmas Day. He was back on his favoured quick ground and he looked good to me; he stopped in front. He’s a horse who can improve again but he needs to against some of these older horses. We haven’t seen many big clashes of the generations yet this year.

The two fillies' races were both won by older mares but Constitution River won the Eclipse although he wasn’t up against stellar older horses so we’re a little in the dark. Look at Aidan O’Bren’s record in the King George too. He’s won it four times but only with one three-year-old, Galileo, back in the day. I don’t think Benvenuto Cellini is a Galileo yet, he might turn out to be, but he has loads in his favour. He still needs to improve to beat Calandagan, mind.

Benvenuto Cellini on his way to winning the Irish Derby

Tactically, do you think Ryan Moore will look to get first run on Calandagan aboard Benvenuto Cellini?

FB: I think this horse needs something to aim at. When he got to the front at the Curragh he definitely parked and to a smaller extent at Chester too, but he was just too good that day. At the Curragh he got a solid pace to aim at and good horses chased him when he went on with Christmas Day and a back-to-form Pierre Bonnard, but I think the way Ryan rode him there really suited him.

I think Benvenuto Cellini is a follower. His dam was very good in America and loved fast ground and I think this horse loves stalking. Obviously, you’re going to have to get involved at some point from the two-furlong marker but I would prefer him to have something to aim at rather than being the one Calandagan can take aim at. I'm not saying he'll follow him but ideally he'd want something to take him deep into the race.

GC: Would we all be agreed that Constitution River is Aidan’s best three-year-old at the moment? If we are it would be a canny trick to win this King George with your second best three-year-old.

Where would Minnie Hauk fit in if she rocks up?

FB: It was good to see her back on track at Ascot. She got very edgy and stewed up before the Tattersalls Gold Cup and again at the back of the gates and I was just wondering had that extra run at the end of last season, having already finished second to Daryz in the Arc, had left a mark on her?

She never used to get that worked up but whatever they did after the Curragh, and going to Royal Ascot, really worked. She was lovely and relaxed, taking everything in her stride, and was back to where she should be. She looks to have turned the corner mentally; the ground will suit her well and a likely good gallop too. She should be bang there and I think there’s more to come off the back of the last run.

GC: This would be her first mile-and-a-half run of the year which is her best trip.

Minnie Hauk completes the Oaks double

And your bet is?

GC: I’m Kalpana each-way.

FB: It's very hard to take on Calandagan but I do think Masquerade Ball, off the back of what he did at Sha Tin and going back to a mile-and-a-half, will run very well. I’m going to stick with the Japanese team.

BN: If Calandagan turns up in the same form as last year I think he’ll win. I have a lot of respect for Masquerade Ball and it will be fascinating to see how he runs but Goliath at around 9/1 looks an each-way bet to me. He’s a former King George winner and relatively consistent. He’ll run his race.