The King George is a Group 1 race that takes place at Ascot over a distance of 2400m. It’s open to horses that are three years and older, and will take place tonight at 12.50 am Australian time.
It’s generally considered the UK’s premier open-age race and is second-only to the Arc in terms of prestige in Europe.
Past winners include some of the most highly-rated thoroughbreds such as Nijinsky, Mill Reef, Brigadier Gerard, Dancing Brave and Harbinger.
Winning trainers include the best in the business like Sir Michael Stoute, Sir Henry Cecil, Saeed bin Suroor, Andre Fabre, Aidan O’Brien, John Oxx and Jim Bolger.
It’s also considered a sire-making race, with past winners including some of the most important recent stallions like Montjeu and Galileo.
Unfortunately, if this year’s favourite wins, we won’t see any of his progeny.
The gelding Cirrus Des Aigles on his best form is far superior to his rivals in this race. However, he is now a seven-year-old and he might not be capable of repeating these performances.
In truth, he might not have to in order to defeat his rivals as there are question marks over the strength of their form.
Trading Leather won the Irish Derby on his last outing and his trainer Jim Bolger believes that he his a genuine contender.
However, this year’s three-year-old crop looks to be ordinary so far and he will have to step up from his last performance to defeat his older rivals here.
The Globe trotting Red Cadeaux can give this a go on his best form, but we didn’t see this from him last time at Royal Ascot.
He is capable of two or three very good performances a year, and so I wouldn’t discount his chances in this.
Novellist defeated Cirrus Des Aigles last time over 2400m in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud, but the latter normally needs a run at the start of the season.
Last year, Novellist was three lengths behind Danedream in a Group 1 in Germany.
Danedream won this race last year, and I don’t think she is as a good a horse as Cirrus Des Aigles was last season, and so this gives us an idea of Novellist’s capabilities.
I’m going to give Cirrus Des Aigles the benefit here even though he probably is past his prime, with Trading Leather coming in second and Novellist ending up third.
johnny nevin is a legend
Guest
Novellists got a timeform rating of 132, which puts him ahead of other Arc rivals Al Kazeem on 129 for the Eclipse and Orfevre on 130. Trading Leather got a rating of 122 which would suggest that on that form he would struggle to win a Group 1 race in open age company.
johnny nevin is a legend
Roar Pro
It'll be interesting to see how timeform rate Novellists victory. He did break Harbingers course record but I think the fast conditions were conducive to this, there was another course record broken in a previous race. CDA was well below his best due to unsuitable firm ground or maybe age or a combination of both. Trading Leather may go on to win at Group 1 level again, maybe not. I still believe the jurys out on the quality of the field but the winner looked impressive.
kv joef
Guest
V.v.impressive, 5 lengths and track record. Funny JN, this is more or less what was discussed in the BC thread about the use clever use creating breeding diversity. The dam carries 2 lines of Northern Dancer with the champion sire, Monsun, clean of Nearco blood. Reckon the Japanese breeding conglomerates are looking at this horse right now. As mentioned elsewhere, they like a br/blk horse and Novelist is the 18th generation of an unbroken br /or blk line (sire or dam) going back to Voltaire (1826) - via St. Simon. Also interesting to note that Birkhan appears top and bottom in the 5th generation, he also is an unbroken 11 generations br/blk back to Voltaire. This is not treating lightly the close up pedigree that is littered with quality on the track and at stud. For the uninitiated the thoroughbred comprises only three basic colours - brown, chestnut and white with many variations. If you mix those three colours together; Bay is the result. Do with paint and you'll see. Black is really a v.v.dark brown and grey a loss of colour in hair pigment. Hope Darley buy him and shuttle him here but i'd be surprised if he isn't already being taught to "nay" in Japanese.
Alfred Chan
Expert
Agree, it was a very week edition of the King George. Without St Nicholas Abbey, it's difficult to gauge exactly where these horses are at but they way Novellist just put them away was still very impressive. I'm not convinced he's good enough to win the Arc but I rate him better than Al Kazeem.
johnny nevin is a legend
Roar Pro
Fair call Alfred you were right, I just didn't want to believe it, he was just such a great horse but you can't deny what you see, I still think it was an average King George
Johnny nevin is a legend
Guest
You could be right Alfred we'll see later
Alfred Chan
Expert
After watching Cirrus in the Saint-Cloud, I think he's done. His trainer says he's improved dramatically since Saint-Cloud but so too has Novelist. I'd be laying Cirrus.