Classy Field of Six Declared for Ascot King George

Late call-ups don’t get any better than a King George VI and Queen Elizabeth QIPCO Stakes invitation to partner international superstar Mishriff, on whom James Doyle has a great chance of winning the £1.25m Group 1 for a second time.

As usual, quality rather than quantity is the main theme in Ascot’s midsummer highlight, which is part of the 35-race QIPCO British Champions Series, and few middle-distance horses have more of it than Mishriff, who was beaten only by the Derby winner Adayar in last year’s race.

Mishriff has already earned more than his five rivals can muster between them, for having won the Prix Du Jockey Club as a three-year-old in 2020 he added the Saudi Cup and Dubai Sheema Classic at four before registering arguably the performance of the year with his six-length win in the Juddmonte International.

There was plenty of speculation about who might pick up the ride when it was revealed David Egan’s retainer had not been renewed after Mishriff’s unlucky-in-running Coral-Eclipse second to Valdeni, but Doyle did not hear he had been chosen much before the news was made public on Tuesday.

Doyle, whose season started sensationally with a QIPCO Guineas double on Coroebus and Cachet, confirmed: “I only learned I’d got the ride pretty much at the same time as everyone else. People had mentioned the possibility, and that was nice in itself, but I never like to get ahead of myself and so to actually get the ride was great.” The 34-year-old, who partnered Mishriff’s stable-companion Lord North for John and Thady Gosden in the Eclipse and had a first sit on the five-year-old on Wednesday morning, added: “I can’t say I saw much of Mishriff through the Eclipse, as I was ahead of him on the inside most of the way. I only saw him when he flashed by late on the outside, but I thought that was a top drawer performance and he was probably a shade unlucky.”

Winners aged four and upwards have outscored the Classic generation by 16 wins to six since the turn of the century in the King George, and this year the older generation is represented by three more Group 1 winners. 

Last year’s Arc winner Torquator Tasso, back to form with an easy win in a Hamburg Group 2 last time, would be a third German-trained winner following Danedream in 2012 and Novellist in 2013, while Broome, successful last year in the Grand Prix de Paris and a recent winner of Royal Ascot’s Hardwicke Stakes, also merits plenty of respect as the sole representative of Aidan O’Brien. The 2021 Coronation Cup winner Pyledriver,who was second in the same race last month, can be counted upon to run his usual honest race.

However, despite the absence of Derby winner Desert Crown, ruled out by a hoof issue last week, the main dangers to Mishriff could be the lineup’s two Classic three-year-olds.

Unlucky-in-running Cazoo Derby third Westover, a seven-length winner since of the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby, was briefly odds on in some lists following the Desert Crown news, but he has been joined at the head of the market by Mishriff’s stable-mate Emily Upjohn, the short-head Cazoo Oaks second, who would have run in last weekend’s Irish Oaks rather than here but for travel issues.

Westover’s trainer Ralph Beckett, a former assistant to the late Peter Walwyn, trainer of 1975 King George hero Grundy, has had only one runner previously in the King George – his first Oaks winner Look Here, who was sixth to Conduit in 2010. However, he has dreamed of having a fancied runner in the race since seeing Shergar win as a schoolboy in 1981.

He recalled: “I was there when Ela-Mana-Mou won in 1980, but the one that really left an impression was Shergar’s win the following year. I remember they applauded him into the paddock before the race, which is almost unheard of, and as a 10-year-old schoolboy you can imagine how huge an impression that made on me.”

Of Westover, whose rider Colin Keane took over from Rob Hornby at The Curragh, he said: “We are all looking forward to it. At the start of the year none of us could have envisaged Westover getting quite this far, so this is a surprise to all of us, but he’s kept on getting better physically and that’s where all of the improvement has come from.” 

Beckett did not need telling that Keane, who was champion jockey in Ireland for a third time last year, has yet to ride an Ascot winner from 46 rides. He was already aware, but he is not worried about it and said: “Colin gave Westover a good ride in Ireland. He rode him very well, so let’s hope for more of the same.”

He added: “As I said the other day, we don’t have a stable jockey. We have three jockeys who ride regularly, but if an owner wants someone else then that’s up to them. That’s the way it works.”