Kalpana turns the tables on Calandagan in King George VI and Queen Elizabeth
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Kalpana could not hold off the onrushing Calandagan in the 2025 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, but this time around, she could.
Reversing the one-two finish in last year’s King George, Kalpana won Britain’s most important 1 1/2-mile race by 1 1/2 lengths over Kalpana on Saturday at Ascot.
Kalpana loves Ascot. Two years running she has won the Group 1 British Champions Fillies and Mares going 1 1/2 miles over the course, handling soft ground in 2024 and a course with plenty of give termed “good” last fall, but Kalpana probably hits her peak on the fast going she got Saturday, and the 5-year-old mare never has run better.
Kalpana’s most recent race resembled last year’s King George: In the Hardwicke Stakes at the Royal Ascot meeting, Kalpana had cruised to the front near the head of the home-straight before Giavellotto rallied and beat her a nose. Kalpana simply improved upon that performance Saturday.
Jockey Colin Keane tucked her midpack behind what appeared to be a strong enough gallop, Aidan O’Brien-trained horses occupying the first three positions with Action at the vanguard, assuring a fair pace for O’Brien’s leading hope, Irish Derby-winner Bevenuto Cellini.
Three furlongs out, Kalpana, going easily, raced nearest the three pacesetters, Keane easing her outside as the field came to the end of the final bend. Kalpana made a nimble, athletic move to cross the heels of Lambourn, the horse near the early pace still running on, splitting him and Benvenuto Cellini, whom Ryan Moore had moved into strong contention.
But Benvenuto Cellini didn’t come forward with enough force to hold Kalpana in, and she ran past Lambourn and up to the lead before Keane had even asked for his mount’s best. He did so with a little less than a quarter-mile remaining and Calandagan, the best horse in the world during 2025, looming outside Benvenuto Cellini. Ever so briefly it looked like Calandagan had the momentum but by the furlong grounds Kalpana hit a finishing speed at least equal to his, holding firm for an excellent win.
Calandagan, winner of the Japan Cup in December and the Sheema Classic in Dubai on March 28, had run short on gas at the line, and Benvenuto Cellini was coming back on him, falling just a half-length short of second while getting 11 pounds from Calandagan. The top three proved much the best, Lambourn hanging on for fourth 2 1/2 lengths out of third, while Japanese shipper Masquerade Ball, narrowly beaten by Calandagan in the Japan Cup, threw a clunker, never coming close to contention and checking in a distant seventh.
Kalpana, who paid $15 on the American tote, is a Juddmonte Farms homebred trained by Andrew Balding, who won his first King George. Kalpana is by Study of Man out of Zero Gravity, by Dansili.
The King George is part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series, and Kalpana earned automatic fees-paid entry into the Breeders’ Cup Turf, plus travel expenses to Keeneland, but connections might not be able to work an American trip into her schedule, with the Arc and the British Champions Fillies and Mares coming within two weeks of one another, and the Fillies and Mares just two weeks before the Breeders’ Cup.
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