Calandagan faces tough crowd in King George
:quality(75))
They write chart comments in France, too, you know, and the home crowd’s translated comments describing Calandagan’s performance July 5 in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud merit a read.
Calandagan won “more comfortably than the margin at the end suggests,” and, closing into a fast pace, “put in a superb acceleration, surely taking the measure of his rivals 200 meters from the post.”
Calandagan, the 3-10 favorite, won by a neck over Cualificar, a Group 2 horse on his best day, and if one saw things differently than the French analysis, one might be inclined to play against Calandagan on Saturday at Ascot in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
Calandagan won the second-most important 1 1/2-mile race in Europe as a 4-year-old of 2025, and as of Thursday was a general 13-8 favorite with British bookmakers to do it again. Only Enable in 2019-20 has landed two King Georges this century.
Even if Calandagan shows his best, this is no layup, and Calandagan did not approach his best self in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud.
Even with a strong pace in front of him, some would question whether Calandagan had the race in the bag a furlong out. Jockey Mickael Barzalona looked fairly hard at work encouraging Calandagan to edge clear of Cualificar and a second presumably inferior rival, Sunly.
That race came a month after Calandagan bombed in the Coronation Cup, albeit over a very soft course that trainer Francis-Henri Graffard predicted Calandagan would dislike. Could he have lost by something less than 42 lengths? Even Calandagan’s Sheema Classic on March 28 left one wanting more: He won by three-quarters over West Wind Blows, capable but hardly top class.
Calandagan would have every right to be somewhat wrung dry after an exceedingly ambitious 2025 campaign. Calandagan ran off five straight Group 1s, including an epic victory in the Japan Cup. Traveling the world while running peak race after peak race will take its toll.
Calandagan captured the Japan Cup by a mere head over Masquerade Ball, whose connections have come to England with a score to settle.
Calandagan essentially won the Japan Cup a quarter-mile out, when Barzalona came from behind Christophe Lemaire aboard Masquerade Ball and caught him slightly flat-footed: The lead Calandagan established at that moment propelled him to victory.
Masquerade Ball has made one start since, traveling to Hong Kong to finished second to Romantic Warrior, one of the great horses of recent vintage.
Irish Derby winner Benvenuto Cellini gets 10 pounds from his older rivals and will need every one of them – and probably more. The bookies had him priced just shorter than stablemate Minnie Hauk, who has not been the same filly this year at age 4 as she was during 2025. Trainer Aidan O’Brien is mired in a rare cold streak.
Kalpana merits strong consideration. The 5-year-old mare, second to Calandagan in the 2025 King George, gets the fast ground she wants, and she might have been moved slightly early opening a big lead a quarter-mile from the finish in the Hardwicke Stakes last month at Ascot. The late-bloomer Giavellotto ran her down by a nose, but Kalpana could prove the true value of this King George.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.