King George at Ascot

Typical overkill Saturday today with racing all over the place, but pride of place goes clearly to Ascot with the Group One King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes over 1 /2 miles at 16.50 CET, the best summer race in the U.K. and easily the best race of the day. The Queen will be there as the race honours her parents, but there will not be a German winner this time, as there has been for the two seasons. Instead we have 5 runners trained in Newmarket and 3 in Ireland. Unusually there are 3 3yo´s in the field, all trained by John Gosden. This age group has a very poor record here - 9 out of the last 10 winners have been 4yos-but that is because few of the best ones run. Today we have the Oaks winner Taghrooda (Paul Hanagan), the Derby third Romsdal and Royal Ascot winner Eagle Top (William Buick), but we are still a bit sceptical and prefer the older horses. Telescope (Sir Michael Stoute/ Ryan Moore) represents the most sucessful trainer in the race and was a spectacular winner at Royal Ascot. He is very reminscient of Harbinger, an easy winner for Stoute after winning the same race in 2010 and he looks the one to beat. We also think Trading Leather (Jim Bolger/ Kevin Manning) could run into a place; he won the Irish Derby last year and was a good runner-up to Novellist in this.

The main supporting feature is the Princess Margaret Stakes for 2yo fillies at 15.05. This looks rather a weak edition and we expect Muraaqaba (Mark Johnston/ Hanagan) to come out on top, and his owner also has a good chance of taking the opener, a listed race for 2yo´s at 14.30 with Charlie Hills´ Muhaarar. Obviously the Queen would like a winner at this meeting and her Peacock (Richard Hannon/ Richard Hughes) looks the main danger. The 4 handicaps all look extremely tricky; our very tentative suggestions are American Hope (Mike Murphy/ Shane Kelly) at 15.40, Don´t Call Me (David Nicholls/ Oisin Murphy) at 16.15, Hadaj (Ruth Carr/ Serene Brotherton) at 17.25 and Trip to Paris (Ed Dunlop/ Ryan Moore) at 18.00.

Betting forecast:
1. Race: Muhaarar - Kodi Bear - Peacock
2. Race: Osaila - Muraaqaba - Goldcrest
3. Race: Billingsgate - Moohaarib - Glorious Empire
4. Race: Horsted Keynes - Belgian Bill - Ayaar
5. Race: Telescope - Taghrooda - Eagle Top
6. Race: Red Refraction - Desert Society - Hadaj
7. Race: Trip To Paris - High Master - Our Gabrial