David Ord previews King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot
Three big guns, three similar running styles, a potentially fascinating tactical contest. David Ord looks ahead to Saturday's King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot.
The 2019 Flat season has stuttered into life in recent weeks.
Frankie Dettori’s four-and-three-quarter winners on an unforgettable Thursday at Royal Ascot lit the blue touch paper.
Enable returned with a bang in the Coral-Eclipse, Ten Sovereigns emerged as a Group One sprinter in the Darley July Cup and now on Saturday we have lift-off.
When Gosden spoke of the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Qipco Stakes as being a "tall order" for his star filly at a press morning on Monday he wasn’t talking down the chance of one of his leading horses, something he is prone to do.
There’s no doubting she faces her acid test here.
Crystal Ocean heads here atop the Longines World’s Best Racehorse Rankings and on Timeform ratings he is only one pound inferior to the market leader on Saturday’s terms. A pound can easily be gained around Swinley Bottom in a King George.
Enable wasn't at her best during a truncated 2018 campaign but after setbacks and illness, still added a second Arc and a Breeders' Cup Turf to her dancecard. Her Sandown return, when the trainer is adamant she was about “90% there”, was a similar level of performance to the ones that gained the day in Paris and Kentucky.
Now she has to find that extra 10%.
For it’s not only Crystal Ocean who’s waiting in the wings – but he’ll do for starters.
Forget their clash on the Kempton polytrack last September when neither were fully tuned up - concentrate instead on his last two runs at this track.
The latest came at Royal Ascot when dropped to ten furlongs, he was given a Dettori masterclass to win the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes, getting first run on Magical and try as she might, he wasn’t for catching.
He had a length-and-a-quarter in hand of the Ballydoyle mare at the line – Enable three-quarters of a length in both the Eclipse and Breeders’ Cup Turf. We're talking fine margins here.
And his run in this race last year offers hope to those who feel he can be the first horse since Shutter Speed in the spring of 2017 to beat the wonder filly.
It was a race run at strong gallop and he looked to have put it to bed when taking two lengths out of the field at the two furlong marker – only to be worn down by stablemate Poet’s Word after a sustained duel – the pair nine lengths clear of subsequent Group One winner Coronet.
He arrives this year arguably a stronger animal, at the peak of his powers, and unarguably the best horse Enable has ever met.
And he will be ridden similarly to his main rival too – close to the pace and looking to make a decisive move in the third quarter of it.
And that brings in the third piece of this intriguing puzzle – Anthony Van Dyck – a horse with a very similar tactical profile.
It was stamina rather than a turn of foot that carried him to the front in a thrilling finish to the Investec Derby and after what happened in the Irish equivalent at the Curragh, don’t expect him to be give the leaders too much rope this time.
Hunting Horn, Enable’s Churchill Downs nemesis, and Norway, are there to set the early fractions and they’ll be queuing up to sit in behind and strike early in the straight.
Is it a case of timing for the three men in the saddle - Dettori, James Doyle and Ryan Moore? Of the three who could sit longest? Presumably not Moore – Anthony Van Dyck is about rhythm and galloping rather than changing gears.
Crystal Ocean does have the ability to quicken but his modus operandi is to hit top gear in the third quarter of a race and try to put it to bed there.
Enable has tactical speed and lots of it – she can sit wherever she wants in a race but that’s never far off the pace – and what’s the latest you’ve ever seen her played? Even in last year’s Arc when they were worried about how much petrol was in the tank, she was decisively committed over a furlong out to gain the leeway required to thwart Sea Of Class’ late lunge.
We’ve seen this scenario before at Ascot. Look back at the 1985 King George.
It was a stellar renewal with 1000 Guineas and Oaks heroine Oh So Sharp and Coronation Cup winner Rainbow Quest the star attractions.
Passing the two furlong marker Steve Cauthen committed on the filly and was followed through by Walter Swinburn on his main rival. Battle was drawn.
But it’s a long way from home - as Crystal Ocean found last year – and Willie Carson and Petoski gradually wore them down to hit the front in the final strides and steal the spoils.
Oh So Sharp went on to win the St Leger and complete the fillies' Triple Crown that year, Rainbow Quest landed an Arc– but the King George was Petoski’s.
If there’s a party pooper this year perhaps it’s Defoe who picked Kew Gardens’ pocket late in the Investec Coronation Cup, while Waldgeist will be ambling through the early stages, stalking to pick up the pieces inside the red-hot intensity of the final two furlongs.
It’s a fascinating race – one to relish. On current form you’d trust Dettori to get it right on Enable and navigate his way to another Group One prize – but there is little margin for error. A champion faces her sternest test and it’s what the King George is all about.
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