Venue: Ascot
Distance: 12 furlongs (2400m)
Value: £2,000,000 (approx US$2,686,000)
The King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes is Europe’s number one high-summer feature and the top weight-for-age middle distance race in Britain. It was first run in 1951 when an original entry of 96 horses was whittled down to 19 – a record field size to this day – and Supreme Court won an epic duel to the line with Zucchero.
The race has produced plenty of thrillers since, notably the race dubbed in Britain ‘The race of the century’, when Grundy and Bustino went head to head for the length of the Ascot straight in 1975. The Derby winner Grundy took the spoils.
Such is the race’s prestige that the list of the race’s winners reads like a who’s who of mile and a half superstars over the last 75 years: Ribot, Royal Palace, Park Top, Nijinsky, Mill Reef, Brigadier Gerard, Dahlia, Shergar, Dancing Brave, Generous, Montjeu, Galileo, Nathaniel, Danedream and Enable.
Calandagan For France Again?
France has won the King George 12 times with 11 individual winners, the first being the Alec Head-trained three-year-old Vimy for the Wertheimer family back in 1955. The 10-1 shot edged past the front-running Acropolis to win by a head on firm going.
Two years ago trainer Francis-Henri Graffard’s Goliath ended an 18-year shutout for French-trained runners, and last year his stablemate Calandagan followed up, in a field that was solid but not quite vintage. Calandagan defeated only four rivals, the mare Kalpana and fellow globe-trotting gelding Rebel’s Romance in second and third, but went on to win the G1 Champion Stakes back at Ascot in October, then sealed the ‘World’s Best’ title with victory in the G1 Japan Cup a month later.
This year he has won a reduced participation edition of the G1 Dubai Sheema Classic, has raced dismally at Epsom in the G1 Coronation Cup, and has delivered a devastating last-to-first surge to win the G1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud and remind everyone of his status and his brilliant ability.
If Calandagan wins again, he will be only the third horse to win back-to-back editions and just the second French horse to do so, 52 years after the incredible mare Dahlia became the first.
The Rematch
Calandagan’s G1 Japan Cup win was the first in 20 years by a foreign raider and the horse he beat so narrowly, Masquerade Ball, is heading to Ascot with his connections intent on exacting revenge.
It promises to be an epic rematch. At Tokyo last November, Masquerade Ball, a three-year-old at the time, and Calandagan, then aged four, raced side by side for the length of the home straight. It was a sensational finish, with Calandagan holding a narrow lead, Masquerade Ball seeming to edge his nose in front and then Calandagan fighting back to nick the win by a head.
Masquerade Ball enjoyed a 5lb allowance that day, but will carry level weights this time, having had eight months to mature. If both horses arrive at their peak, the clash promises to be an epic.
But then there’s Kalpana, too. The Juddmonte homebred quickened clear in last year’s race only to be overrun by Calandagan and place a length second. She has won twice since and was beaten only a shorthead at Royal Ascot last time in the G2 Hardwicke Stakes.
Shadai Trying To Balance History
Masquerade Ball runs in the yellow and black colours of the Shadai racing club, and his King George assignment comes exactly 20 years after Shadai’s last big attempt at the prize, when Heart’s Cry was sent to Ascot to take on Hurricane Run and Electrocutionist. That third place is the best Japan has fared in the race.
Just like in 2006, Christophe Lemaire will take the reins, but while the Japanese contingent could be proud of Heart’s Cry’s brave run in the race two decades ago, this time the aim is victory, nothing less.
For good measure, Japan also has Wurttemberg – owned by Shadai boss Teruya Yoshida – accompanying Masquerade Ball, and perhaps the old stayer will play a role in what would be a famous Japanese triumph.
Three-year-old Challenge
The King George was devised to bring together the best of the generations, the classic crop against the older horses, but this year the G1 Irish Derby winner Benvenuto Cellini, trained by Aidan O’Brien, and his stablemate Action, are the only three-year-olds in the field.
The sample so far is too small to determine how the three-year-olds measure up against their elders but the O’Brien-trained three-year-old Constitution River, winner of the French Derby this year, did win the weight-for-age G1 Eclipse Stakes over 10 furlongs earlier this month.
Three-year-olds have won 31 editions of the King George, with older horses successful 44 times. In recent years the pendulum has swung markedly towards the older horses though, with only two three-year-old winners in the last 10.
Best Of British
One striking element of this year’s race is the weakness of the British defence. Horses trained in Britain have won the race 48 times, but this time the home team numbers only two: last year’s second Kalpana and this year’s G1 Coronation Cup winner Bay City Roller.
Both horses have their merits but they’re a long way off the best British-trained horses to have won or been beaten in a King George. Bay City Roller may have defeated Calandagan at Epsom in June, but the champ was well below par on a track he seems not to enjoy and the George Scott-trained runner will start at double figure odds.
The lack of British participation seems to point to a trend of diminished numbers at the top end of the mile and half ranks in Britain. ∎
