Ground may not be to Love's liking in King George
Even six can pack a punch, as you can plainly see from the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes on Saturday at Ascot.
Love could turn out to be the best grass horse in the world by year’s end. Adayar won the Derby at Epsom by more than four lengths in his most recent race. Mishriff already this season has captured the $20 million Saudi Cup over nine furlongs on dirt and the $5 million Sheema Classic over 12 furlongs on grass. Lone Eagle is a four-time winner beaten just a neck last out in Ireland by star 3-year-old Hurricane Lane. Those are the four shortest prices in the 1 1/2-mile King George, and the two others are no slouches, either. Wonderful Tonight is a multiple Group-1 winning mare, Broome was the hero of the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris in his most recent appearance. So, yes, six is enough.
Post time for the King George is 10:35 a.m. Eastern (catch all the action live at DRFBets.com). The race is part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge series, offering the winner an automatic fees-paid entry into the BC Turf plus travel expenses to Del Mar. The local weather forecast is unfortunately unsettled. As of Thursday, the Ascot course was listed good-to-firm, but there’s roughly a 50 percent chance of potentially heavy rain Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon, and if the precipitation comes, it could change everything.
That starts with Love, the strong antepost favorite with British bookmakers on Thursday. Love was a Group 1 winner at age 2 and last season at 3 put together an awesome three-start campaign, romping in the 1000 Guineas over a straight mile and the Oaks over a turning 1 1/2 miles. But after winning the Yorkshire Oaks on Aug. 20 by five lengths, Love was finished for the season, her campaign curtailed by a wet late summer and autumn in Europe.
Love, trainer Aidan O’Brien believes, needs to stay on top of the ground, rather than sink into it, and her 2021 debut was delayed because of sodden course conditions. Finally back in action June 16 at Royal Ascot, she scored a measured three-quarter-length victory over 2020 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf winner Audarya in the 1 1/4-mile Prince of Wales’s Stakes. All signs point to an improved performance by Love, provided she gets the ground she needs. O’Brien also entered Broome, a steady 5-year-old performer, who can handle a wet course.
Love carries 130 pounds, including jockey Ryan Moore, getting three pounds from the two older horses but giving eight to the 3-year-old males, Adayar and Lone Eagle. Adayar, a Godolphin homebred trained by Charlie Appleby, lost his first two starts of 2021 before a 4 1/2-length surprise in the Derby, run over a good-to-soft course. His stablemate Hurricane Lane was the more highly regarded runner from Godolphin, and after a third-place finish at Epsom has won the Irish Derby by a neck over Lone Eagle and the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris by six lengths. Adayar, by Frankel, still must validate his Derby performance but does get a serious weight break from the far more established Love.
Lone Eagle, a Galileo colt trained by Martyn Meade, displayed high-level 2-year-old form, winning at 1 1/4 miles, and was flattered by Hurricane Lane’s blowout score in France after Lone Eagle came close to beating him at The Curragh.
Mishriff as of Thursday was a confusingly high price with the bookmakers, roughly 8-1, considering his track record. Winner of the 2020 French Derby, he was thought to be in need of a start when beaten nearly four lengths July 3 in the Eclipse Stakes by St Mark’s Basilica, a 3-year-old who got 10 pounds from Mishriff in that 1 1/4-mile contest. Mishriff, in American terms, is dead on the board in a race that’s must-see viewing.