King George preview: David Ord sets the scene

The second of Britain's glittering summer all-aged Group One middle-distance showpieces takes place at Ascot on Saturday.

It does so without a single three-year-old present. Dual Derby winner Lambourn, plus Oaks second and Pretty Polly winner Whirl, were the two significant ones still in there pitching at the six-day stage, but this race has long been the target for Jan Brueghel. He doesn’t need another A-lister on the support cast.

So instead, we are served up a field of five and a tactical battle that is every bit as intriguing as the Coral-Eclipse promised to be.

On that occasion the whole pre-race chatter revolved around how the race would stack-up for Ombudsman, who had swept clear off a ferocious gallop to win the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot but was now heading into a contest without any obvious pace angle.

At a track and in a race too where historically it had proved notoriously difficult to close late and pick up the spoils with a thrust up the hill.

We expected Delacroix to go to the front and set his own fractions. Aidan O’Brien expected Delacroix to go to the front and set his own fractions.

Instead, Delacroix got boxed in, shuffled back to last and produced a startling turn of foot to reinvent himself as a poacher and snare the Sandown spoils.

Now we all know how we think the King George is going to play out.

Continuous goes to the front, sets a strong gallop but not the sort of kamikaze one that served the Prince Of Wales’s up on a plate for the closers.

Jan Brueghel will sit second, set sail for home turning in and try to break Calandagan. It worked in the Coronation Cup, the French star getting alongside but never past before being eyeballed and fought off inside a desperate final furlong.

So, the onus is on the Aga Khan Studs team to do something different.

This time they need to be past in a few strides, seal it instantly. You don’t beat Jan Brueghel by coming at him slow, you hit him hard and fast.

Maybe the track will allow Calandagan to do to just that, be more balanced when the accelerator is pressed. Maybe the confidence from an impressive Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud success coursing through the veins will be all it takes.

But then you watch King Georges of the past.

Take 1985, for example. We had 1000 Guineas and Oaks winner Oh So Sharp in there, Coronation Cup hero Rainbow Quest too. They went on to win the St Leger and Arc respectively, the latter in the stewards’ room.

Law Society was in the field, second in the Derby before winning the Irish equivalent for Vincent O’Brien alongside Strawberry Road was now trained in France having been Australian Horse of the Year in his native land. There was the Japanese Derby winner Sirius Symboli among the outsiders.

The stalls fly open and a strong gallop is set by Rainbow Quest’s pacemaker August. He tires just after the three-pole but, the baton is picked up by Infantry in the Robert Sangster silks for Brent Thomson and Barry Hills. Crucially, Oh So Sharp and Rainbow Quest immediately go in pursuit with Law Society next.

A furlong-and-a-half out and Infantry is finally back-tracking, Oh So Sharp and Rainbow Quest are engaged in an epic duel down the Ascot straight that would seemingly decide who wears the crown.

But they've been hard at work for a long way now, tiring horses on fast summer ground. Your eyes are drawn to a colt in the Lady Beaverbrook silks, by the far rail, called Petoski. He was down the field in the Derby at a time when a virus was ravaging his yard but confidence restored in the Princess of Wales's Stakes, about to enjoy his moment in the sun.

He stays on relentlessly, his rhythm not broken by switching outside his two rivals in the closing stages and in - at the time - the second fastest King George ever run, he overhauls the star names to snatch the prize.

It makes you think how dangerous man-marking is in horse racing. And you look at the remarkable CV of Rebel’s Romance, the way Kalpana won the Fillies & Mares here in the autumn and then travelled behind Whirl in the Pretty Polly last time. You’re reminded that this is a proper King George.

A race of fine margins, as it should be at this level.

Team Ballydoyle will want the cards to fall exactly as they did in the Coronation Cup. Calandagan's connections must play their hand differently and Rebel’s Romance and Kalpana are waiting in the wings to take advantage of any slip-ups.

It’s Ryan Moore and Wayne Lordan v Mickael Barzalona, Oisin Murphy and William Buick.

The 2025 King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes is a high-stake, high-pressure game with some of the shrewdest, most experienced players in the world sitting at the table.

The one thing we can be sure of is Continuous goes to the front. The rest of the act will play out in glorious summer sunshine at 4.15 on Saturday. It’s appointment viewing.

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