Aidan O'Brien has two shots at securing a 10th Irish success in today's King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot and John Murtagh believes the long time favourite Dylan Thomas remains the one to be on.
Michael Kinane, a five time King George winner, is again on board the Coronation Cup winner Scorpion but Murtagh, successful on Alamshar in 2003, is confident the Ballydoyle runner he is on will come out on top.
"He's a Group One winner at a mile and a quarter so he should have plenty of pace. He has been beaten on his last two starts by Manduro and Notnowcato but they are Group One horses. Hopefully there will be no heavy in the ground," he said yesterday.
Indications yesterday were that Murtagh will get his wish for a race that has been repeatedly dismissed as sub-standard on the run up to today. The star Irish jockey was having none of that however.
"Everyone is trying to knock it but ask any trainer or owner what race they would like to win and the King George will be right up there. I won it on Alamshar and I'm sure it will be sweet second time round," Murtagh added.
The Irish team's opposition will include the double Hardwicke winner Maraahel.
Meanwhile, Pat Smullen (10-11) and Ruby Walsh (8-11) have been installed as favourites by Paddy Power to secure the leading jockey titles at next week's Galway festival. The firm also go 8 to 1 about Dermot Weld not securing the 21st leading trainer award of his career.
n A transmission error by the Press Association resulted in the wrong racing results appearing in yesterday's sports pages. The error is regretted and the correct returns for Thursday are printed today.
