Five key questions ahead of the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes

1. What’s the Corrie Cup form in a nutshell?

Jan Brueghel beat Calandagan half a length after a sustained duel in the Epsom straight for the Betfred Coronation Cup on June 6 and the pair are all set to do battle again in the King George.

It looks very good form. The highest timefigure in the race this century according to Timeform, the pair pulled seven lengths clear of a very solid Group One performer in Giavellotto (for all the rain turned conditions away from his optimum) and Calandagan wasn’t far off his best, meaning Jan Brueghel showed significant improvement.

Aidan O’Brien’s horse has been off since Epsom, while Calandagan has franked the form for all that he was expected to win his first Group One in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud on June 29, which he duly did by three and a half lengths.

Jan Brueghel chased the good pace set by his stablemate Continuous in the Coronation Cup and was well positioned in clear daylight as Ryan Moore got him rolling early down the Epsom camber where he produced a strong, sustained challenge.

Calandagan was ridden off the pace and made up his ground early in the straight before locking horns with Jan Brueghel. He didn’t look totally at ease on the track and threatened to lug in behind his rival approaching the two-furlong pole before he was straightened up to challenge to the outside of the winner.

On the evidence from Epsom there clearly wasn’t much between the pair and the bookies are struggling to split them ahead of the King George.

But the different track might just give Calandagan the edge. Not only is Ascot more conventional but Calandagan has an excellent record here, winning the Group Two King Edward VII Stakes over the King George course and distance by six lengths, while he was a commendable second over 10 furlongs in last year’s Champion Stakes, too.

2. Continuous pacemaking duties from Ballydoyle?

Well yes, probably, but they need to get it right.

On the one hand we’ve seen in the Coral-Eclipse already this season that even the most talented horses can suffer for a lack of pace in the race and Jan Brueghel, a St Leger winner, would look most vulnerable to a horse like Calandagan if they went an ordinary gallop over 1m4f.

One of his great strengths is that he stays further and Continuous did such a good job of setting things up for him at Epsom under Wayne Lordan that he looks likely to be employed from the front end once again in a bid to ensure this is truly run.

But the danger is they get it wrong and set it up for something other than Jan Brueghel. Such a scenario developed at Royal Ascot when Continuous went off a furious gallop in the Prince Of Wales’s for stablemate Los Angeles, only for things to fall into Ombudsman’s lap.

On top of that Hans Andersen did a similar thing in last year’s King George and things didn’t pan out for either of his stablemates Auguste Rodin or Luxembourg, with Goliath and Christophe Soumillon picking up the pieces that day.

O’Brien will be mindful of that, but Continuous’ presence looks highly likely as Jan Brueghel looks to draw the sting out of Calandagan for a second time.

3. Weather watch and Kalpana chance?

It’s not just about the big two and while we’ve had a golden summer in England so far the visits to the Met Office website have become more frequent in the last week as rainclouds are gathering more often.

At Ascot they’ve had 17mm of rain recorded in the last seven days to the Tuesday of King George week, resulting in a current official going description of ‘Good’ and with the possibility of a bit more rain to come.

However, those showers look minimal and after Wednesday the forecast is for no rain and more warm weather, so we could easily be edging back towards ‘Good to Firm’ come race day.

That shouldn’t necessarily rule Kalpana out of calculations, for all that her chance would increase if soft ground had come up judging by her excellent win in such conditions in the Group One Fillies & Mares at this track the last Champions Day.

The Study Of Man filly has run well in two 10-furlong assignments at the Curragh this season, behind O’Brien’s Los Angeles and Whirl, and returning to a mile and a half should see her in an even better light as she continues her path to the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

She gets a 3lb sex allowance from the boys, which will help, but she needs to improve quite significantly to muscle in on the big two here and on faster ground she might just come up short for all that she’s a fascinating contender for Juddmonte and Andrew Balding.

4. Can Romance strike for the older brigade?

Globetrotting Rebel’s Romance has already achieved plenty in his career - including seven Group Ones in four different countries - but he’s still on the hunt for a first top-level success in the UK.

He has added to his domestic purse with Group Two wins at York and Ascot this season, his latter victory in the Hardwicke Stakes franked by the runner-up Al Riffa just at the weekend, but the feeling is he will have to scale new heights if he’s to break the duck in this year’s renewal of the King George.

Not only that but he will have to defy the weight of history and become the first horse older than six to land the King George in its 74 years.

Granted, not too many have tried.

Only eight horses seven and older have run in the King George this century and most of those were outsiders set unlikely tasks, the exception being Cirrus Des Aigles who was seven in 2013 when he was sent off the 6/4 favourite only to finish fourth behind Novellist.

Winning machine Rebel’s Romance has built up quite the fanbase after winning 18 of his 26 starts. A history-making win on Saturday would top the lot.

5. Are any 3yos going to turn up?

It's looking unlikely.

The King George is famous for its three-year-old participants, the likes of Nijinsky, Mill Reef, Shergar, Dancing Brave, Nashwan, Galileo, Nathaniel, Enable and most recently Adayar winning this race in their Classic-winning seasons.

But they don’t turn up every year. Six renewals this century have been run without a three-year-old lining up and this could well be one of those years.

It mainly hinges on O’Brien, with Derby winner Lambourn and Pretty Polly heroine Whirl his unlikely three-year-olds left in the race, presumably in case something unfortunate happens with Jan Brueghel.

Whirl is pencilled in for the Nassau Stakes and Lambourn the Great Voltigeur, while Jessica Harrington’s Green Impact would be massively up against it after falling short in the 2000 Guineas and Irish Derby against his contemporaries.

O’Brien has won the King George on three occasions with four-year-olds and he didn’t run a three-year-old against them, and he isn’t expected to unleash one against Jan Brueghel here.

Sometimes that makes the King George less of a spectacle, but not this year, not really.

A stellar cast of older horses makes this an eagerly-anticipated renewal, with Kalpana and Rebel’s Romance aiming to break into the level of form set by the market-leading Coronation Cup duo.

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