The presence of Australia’s superstar Winx had a dramatic impact on last year’s top Group 1 ratings.
Her victorious presence in the Cox Plate, George Ryder Stakes and Colgate Optic White Stakes led to those events being ranked in the top 10 races in the world.
One of the major races to suffer as a consequence was the highly prestigious King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, which was in 12th place. It will be a different scenario this year.
With Winx in thoroughly-deserved retirement and a vintage field lining up for the running of the King George at Ascot on Saturday the race may well be vying for the No.1 spot with the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp by year’s end.
In the time since the King George was first run in 1951 there has arguably never been a better field than the one assembled for the 2019 running.
This year’s renewal has attracted the world’s highest rated horses Enable and Crystal Ocean as well as Defoe and Epsom Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck. The Japanese are also going to be right in the picture by running 2017 Japan Cup winner Cheval Grand.
Enable’s trainer John Gosden has a long-range plan to win an historic third Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in October with Enable. She demonstrated that she is “as good as ever” winning the Eclipse Stakes over 10 furlongs, which is below her preferred distance. The winner of the King George as a three-year-old filly in 2017 Enable will appreciate racing over the extra two furlongs on the roomy Ascot circuit. Added to that she will again have the services of Frankie Dettori, who has never ridden in better style and has been aboard Enable in 10 of her 11 victories. It will not be easy for her however.
Crystal Ocean; whose trainer Sir Michael Stoute has won the King George a record six times, finished second in the race last year to his stablemate Poet’s Word. Crystal Ocean has returned to racing this year in splendid fashion with three successive wins culminating in a victory in the Prince of Wales Stakes at Royal Ascot. Interestingly Dettori has chosen Enable as his mount ahead of Crystal Ocean on who he partnered in this year’s Prince of Wales.
Another high profile candidate will be Defoe who has risen to new heights this year. Runner-up to Caulfield Cup winner Best Solution at Baden Baden last September, he scored a breakthrough victory in the Group 1 Coronation Cup at Epsom this May. He followed that by taking the prestigious Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot.
It is intriguing the world’s leading trainer; Aidan O’Brien has elected to test the three-year-old Anthony Van Dyck against the superior opposition he will be meeting on Saturday. O’Brien with four wins in the event, including a victory with Anthony Van Dyck’s sire Galileo has regained his confidence in the colt despite his loss in the Irish Derby. A convincing winner at the Derby at Epsom, he never travelled like a winner in the Irish Derby and had his colours lowered by stablemate Sovereign.
Over recent years the Japanese have been eager to make an impression on the international scene and they will be looking to Cheval Grand to further enhance the country’s standing. Cheval Grand proved his ability as a high profile stayer by racing away from a quality field including benchmark performer Kitisan Black to capture the 2017 Japan Cup, with Australia’s Hugh Bowman aboard. Last year he was fourth behind superstar mare Almond Eye and completed the season with a third in the Arima Kinen. Cheval Grand then travelled to Dubai in March where he registered a brave second to Godolphin’s Old Persian in the Sheema Classic, when again ridden by Hugh Bowman.
Champion French trainer Andre Fabre was successful with Hurricane Run in 2006 and has a legitimate contender in the ultra consistent Waldgeist. An impressive winner of the Group 1 Prix Ganay at Longchamp on his seasonal return he battled on stoutly when third to Crystal Ocean in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes at Ascot while Salouen and Magic Wand add further depth to what promises to be a race for the history books
Selections:
1 Enable [8]
2 Crystal Ocean [2]
3 Defoe [3]
4 Waldgeist [7]
