It’s 50 years to the day since Ascot’s King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes threw up the “Race of the Century”, and while Saturday’s renewal isn’t a classic renewal of British racing’s midsummer highlight, it does hold the promise of another finish for the ages.
It’s not a classic King George scenario because no three-year-olds are taking on the handful of older runners that line up.
Much of the appeal of that legendary Grundy vs Bustino clash from 1975 was the intergenerational element, which was part of the original race brief. But just two winners from the Classic generation in the last decade underlines how times have changed.
Ultimately, though, the main reason that King George still resonates is the head-to-head factor. It’s also why last month’s Coronation Cup clash between Ireland’s Jan Brueghel and France’s Calandagan was so memorable. And now the pair go at it again in the richest race ever run at Ascot.
The Godolphin team, with their globetrotting stalwart Rebels Romance, and Juddmonte, who pitch in the filly Kalpana, will fancy their chances of upsetting any duopoly.
Nevertheless, there may be no more apt anniversary moment than another ‘mano a mano’ clash between the two horses that duked it out so memorably at Epsom.
Aidan O’Brien has skipped the opportunity to do what once would have been almost preordained and isn’t running his dual-Derby hero Lambourn. That was the route that O’Brien’s first King George winner and Lambourn’s legendary grandsire, Galileo, followed in 2001.
There have been three more O’Brien-trained winners of the race since then, all older horses, and Jan Brueghel is another that looks to be maturing with time into a top middle-distance performer.
He was one of Galileo’s final Classic winners when victorious in last year’s St Leger at Doncaster, but that Coronation Cup triumph took his form to another level again.
If Calandagan looked the likely winner for much of that race, O’Brien’s tactical aim to draw the French star into a final furlong arm-wrestle worked out perfectly.
Briefly headed by Calandagan, Jan Brueghel’s stamina eventually kicked in on the prevailing easy conditions and after a memorable duel he won out by half a length.
Plenty of the post-race focus was on the runner-up’s resolution or supposed lack thereof. Even jockey Mickael Barzalona got it in the neck in some quarters, although it was hard to see what else he could have done.
Subsequently, the partnership got it spot on in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud where routing last year’s Arc runner-up Aventure. Even further behind them was the 2024 King George winner Goliath.
After a series of runner-up placings, it was a timely first Group One for Calandagan and if it indicated once again that he’s a rather one-dimensional runner in having to be played late, the pay-off can be a devastating finishing burst.
That turns this King George into a fascinating tactical quandary. Half a century ago, it was hell for leather from the start, whereas so much of this race could revolve around Jan Brueghel’s stable companion Continuous.
The 2023 Leger victor is again on pacemaker duties and fills out a field of proven Group One winners. He has been slowly away in some of his recent races, but on the back of having helped draw Calandgan’s sting at Epsom, it would be a surprise if the same approach doesn’t occur.
What’s different is much quicker ground and a track around which Calandagan has proven winning form, as do Rebel’s Romance and Kalpana. It’s a new test for Jan Brueghel and significantly he is equipped with first-time cheekpieces.
The pay-off should the Irish horse win will be significant. At £1.5 million (more than €1.7 million), it is the richest race ever run at the famous track. Sixty-seven years after Ballymoss first won for Ireland, Jan Brueghel would be the 13th King George winner from this country.
He would be the first since Daylami in 1999 to pull off the Coronation Cup – King George double in the same year. Five others have managed it too. And the colt would also be a first Leger winner to score since Conduit in 2009. Ryan Moore rode him, and Jan Brueghel has the English man on his back.
Oisín Murphy has yet to win in three rides on Kalpana but teams up with the filly in Colin Keane’s absence due to suspension. Victory for the Kerry man would provide a redemptive story considering the upheaval he’s been involved with off the track in recent months.
But the storyline that so many will hope to see is another dramatic finish to conjure memories of that 1975 King George epic. Round Two of last month’s Coronation Cup would fit the bill nicely. On this occasion, though, it could be worth betting on some Calandagan revenge.
