King George day at Ascot.

Friday, 20 July 2012: And with a bit of luck the weather may be reasonable although the going is expected to be soft on the round course and good to soft on the straight.


The first group race of the afternoon will be the Summer Mile G2 for 4y+ and it will be run over the round mile course. The Queen's Carlton House deserves a bit of luck and has an excellent chance here and is on 6/4. The Andrew Balding trained Tullius has been putting some nice wins into his CV and will be on 4/1, with the Gosden/Buick runner Questioning on 9/2.

The King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes is G1 and is part of the British Champion Series. Ten runners remain. It's pretty tight in the betting between last year's winner (and this year's Eclipse winner) Nathaniel (Gosden/Buick) and the Irish raider St Nicholas Abbey. St Nich has recently started to reveal the potential he showed as a two year old, and if we ignore his 3 yo year, he's the one they have to beat.
The Stoute runner Sea Moon, with Ryan Moore on board, is also a serious contender with 2 wins on this course and distance in top company. Then you have the raiders - Danedream really needs a dry track so we won't put her in the conundrum but we will put in Melbourne Cup winner Dunedin with Craig Williams riding and on 6/1. Yes, he can run longer distances but he's got a great record at this trip as well.

And then there is Deep Brillante, the Japanese Derby winner. He's lightly raced but extremely versatile - can run in either direction, on soft or hard tracks and as a 3yo gets a huge pull in the weights. His regular jockey Yasunori Iwata, winner of the Melbourne Cup and two Japan Cups, has been working with him this week and reports are glowing. 16/1 is definiteley worth a bit of each way money.