Unbeaten Golden Horn takes on older rivals in King George

What are the chances that a Triple Crown-winning 3-year-old in the United States and a truly great European 3-year-old would emerge during the same racing season?

Whatever they are, it is happening right now, and as American Pharoah, the American Triple Crown winner, gears up for another start against fellow 3-year-olds in the Haskell Invitational, Golden Horn can expand his growing legend in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes on Saturday at Ascot in England, a "Win and You're In" race for the Breeders' Cup Turf.

Unlike American Pharoah, who lost his career debut, Golden Horn is undefeated, though his closest call also came in his first race, a head victory over the good colt Storm the Stars in a Nottingham maiden race last October. Even then, Golden Horn evinced charisma, launching a powerful last-to-first rally in his only start at 2.

At 3, no one has come close to him. Golden Horn won the Feilden Stakes in April by 1 1/2 lengths, and in May he won the Dante Stakes by 2 3/4. He beat the same horse in the Dante, his stablemate Jack Hobbs, that he whipped by 3 1/2 in the Epsom Derby, but don’t denigrate the form because of that, as Jack Hobbs returned with a dominant score in the Irish Derby.

Meanwhile, Golden Horn tacked older rivals in the Eclipse Stakes. He took a challenge at the top of the stretch from the very good 4-year-old The Grey Gatsby and pushed him back to win again by 3 1/2. Perhaps most impressive of all, Golden Horn led all the way in the Eclipse, a race lacking a front-runner, after winning his first four races from well off the pace.

It seems right now there is nothing stopping Golden Horn, and he will be bet that way Saturday in the King George, a 1 1/2-mile Group 1 offering a purse of about $1,070,000, with post time set for 10:50 a.m. Eastern. The going at Ascot was firm Thursday, but rain was forecast all day Friday, and the course will be the softest Golden Horn has encountered since his debut. As if he needs any help, Golden Horn gets a big break in the weights, carrying 121 pounds compared with 133 assigned to the race’s older males.

There are eight of those willing to take him on, plus one filly, Madame Chiang, the chief rivals to Golden Horn being Snow Sky and Eagle Top, one-two in the Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot. Snow Sky, a Juddmonte colt trained by Michael Stoute, is on the bottom end of his distance range going 12 furlongs and should be prominently placed throughout.

Eagle Top had a rough trip in the Hardwicke, when he was beaten nearly four lengths by Snow Sky, and his trainer, John Gosden, knows better than anyone what he is up against Saturday. Gosden also trains Golden Horn, and he has not made a misstep yet overseeing a colt whose reputation has swelled with every race. Gosden won the King George last year with the 3-year-old filly Taghrooda and won it in 2011 with the 3-year-old colt Nathaniel. Golden Horn absolutely seems a better horse than that pair.

Enjoy him while you can. Gosden and owner Anthony Oppenheimer have Golden Horn penciled in for a start in the Juddmonte International at York before he goes to Paris for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, his probable career finale.