Auguste Rodin bidding to give O'Brien a fifth King George

Remember Risk Material? Maybe even Aidan O’Brien himself might need his memory jogging about his first runner in the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes in 1998. Sent off the 50/1 outsider of eight under Walter Swinburn after finishing seventh in the Irish Derby on his previous start, Risk Material never figured and trailed home last behind Swain.

But if O’Brien’s first King George runner is easily forgotten now, his second contender made a big impression at the time and has left a lasting legacy. Three years later O’Brien returned to Ascot with a far superior three-year-old colt. Like Risk Material, Galileo had won the Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial in the spring but he’d then gone on to win the Derby and the Irish Derby with top-class performances, winning readily at the Curragh after storming away at Epsom. That took his unbeaten record to five when he started the 1/2 favourite in the King George.

Accompanied by stablemate Ice Dancer, Galileo faced ten other rivals, five of them fellow Group 1 winners. But it was 18/1 bar two because much his biggest threat was Godolphin’s top-class five-year-old Fantastic Light, the best older horse in Europe, bidding to give Swain’s trainer Saeed bin Suroor his fifth win in the last seven renewals and jockey Frankie Dettori his fourth.

At the end of a strongly-run contest, and in front of a record crowd on a sweltering day, the race didn’t disappoint as the two principals came to the fore in the final couple of furlongs. Mick Kinane was the first to strike for home on Galileo but wider out the more patiently ridden Fantastic Light soon emerged from the pack as well, drawing upsides as the pair engaged in a duel passing the furlong marker. Fantastic Light appeared to edge ahead narrowly at one stage but Galileo, responding to strong handling from Kinane, forged ahead again in the closing stages, ultimately outstaying Fantastic Light who was eased in the last few strides once clearly beaten and passed the post two lengths back in second.

Exactly fifty years after the King George was founded, Galileo became the ninth colt to complete the Derby-King George double (he was also the seventh to win the Irish Derby in between as well), but in the more than twenty years since, only Adayar, a grandson of Galileo, has completed the same double, doing so three years ago. Galileo was the first of what are now O’Brien’s record ten Derby winners but only two of the others have been pointed at the King George as three-year-olds.

Not only did both Anthony Van Dyck and Auguste Rodin come up short at Ascot, both colts ran no race at all. Wearing cheekpieces after being beaten in the Irish Derby after Epsom, Galileo’s son Anthony Van Dyck was in trouble a long way from home before beating trailing home the best part of forty lengths behind Enable in 2019. Auguste Rodin was a slightly better Derby winner than Anthony Van Dyck and had managed to follow up at the Curragh but having been sent off the 9/4 favourite for last year’s King George, he too was struggling from some way out and virtually pulled up in the end by Ryan Moore.

But since that unexplained flop – there was surely more to it than the good to soft ground - Auguste Rodin has added an Irish Champion Stakes, a Breeders’ Cup Turf and, last month, a Prince of Wales’s Stakes to his cv, all those wins coming on going firmer than good. With his recent success at Royal Ascot signalling that last year’s Derby winner is back to his best, Auguste Rodin is set to go off favourite again for Saturday’s King George, and at shorter odds this time, in his second attempt.

Only two Derby winners have won the King George as four-year-olds, the last one exactly forty years ago. The first was Royal Palace in 1968 who went to Ascot after beating that year’s Derby winner Sir Ivor into third in the Eclipse at Sandown in a rare clash of Derby winners. Also successful earlier that season in the Coronation Cup and a two-runner Prince of Wales’s Stakes, Royal Palace sustained what proved a career-ending injury in the closing stages of the King George but held on to win by half a length.

Like Royal Palace, Teenoso didn’t contest the King George as a three-year-old but, having won the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud beforehand, he lined up a year later in a very strong field for the 1984 renewal. Favourite was the previous year’s winner Time Charter but it was three-year-old colt Sadler’s Wells, who’d beaten Time Charter narrowly in the Eclipse, who proved the Lester Piggott-ridden Teenoso’s biggest threat. Sadler’s Wells therefore couldn’t provide his trainer Vincent O’Brien with a fourth King George success (he’d won it with four-year-old Ballymoss and the Derby/Irish Derby winners Nijinsky and The Minstrel) but of course he went on to sire Galileo, the first of Aidan O’Brien’s four King George winners.

The four-year-old version of Auguste Rodin fits the mould of O’Brien’s three King George winners who have come along since Galileo; Dylan Thomas (the winner in 2007), Duke of Marmalade (2008) and Highland Reel (2016) were all four-year-old winners who compiled impressive big-race records.

Dylan Thomas won the Irish Derby and Irish Champion Stakes at three but he didn’t contest the King George that season with Coolmore represented at Ascot instead by the Andre Fabre-trained four-year-old winner Hurricane Run. A year later, though, Dylan Thomas made short work of his rivals in the King George as the 5/4 favourite in a season when he also won the Prix Ganay, a second Irish Champion Stakes and the Arc.

In winning that second Irish Champion Stakes, he had younger stablemate Duke of Marmalade back in second in what proved a winless three-year-old season for that colt. But it was a very different story for Duke of Marmalade at four when the King George was one of his five consecutive Group 1 victories, coming after the Ganay, the Tattersalls Gold Cup and Prince of Wales’s Stakes and before the Juddmonte International. Sent off at odds on for his first try over a mile and a half in the King George, Duke of Marmalade battled back when headed for a half-length win over Papal Bull, the pair well clear of Youmzain in third who had been runner-up to Dylan Thomas the year before.

O’Brien’s most recent King George winner, Galileo’s son Highland Reel, with a Timeform rating of 129, wasn’t quite as good as either Dylan Thomas or Duke of Marmalade (both rated 132) and the edition of the King George he won in 2016 was certainly a substandard one. But by the time the globe-trotting Highland Reel was retired as a five-year-old he had seven top-level victories to his name, including the Breeders’ Cup Turf later at four and the Coronation Cup, Prince of Wales’s Stakes and a second Hong Kong Vase the following season.

Earlier this month, City of Troy was a record eighth winner of the Eclipse for O’Brien and, if successful in his next likely race, the Juddmonte International, this year’s Derby winner would put his trainer one ahead of Sir Michael Stoute with a record seven wins in the York contest. But O’Brien hasn’t found success coming quite so regularly in the King George where he has run 17 horses since Highland Reel’s win eight years ago.

However, the majority of the Ballydoyle horses beaten in the King George since 2016 have gone off at 10/1 or bigger, including several pacemakers at much longer odds. The flops of Derby winners Anthony Van Dyck and Auguste Rodin have already been mentioned, but the only other real disappointment was Love who was the 13/8 favourite when bidding for a fifth consecutive Group 1 win in 2021, having won the Prince of Wales’s Stakes beforehand, but could finish only a respectable third of five behind Adayar.

O’Brien has five runners engaged in Saturday’s race at the five-day stage, with both Luxembourg and Continuous having much more of a chance on their best form than any second-string status might suggest. After all, Luxembourg was only half a length behind Auguste Rodin in last year’s Irish Champion Stakes and his Coronation Cup win last month is proof of his effectiveness at the trip after he didn’t see things out fully when fourth in last year’s race. A test of stamina would certainly suit St Leger winner Continuous who should be all the better for his return in last month’s Hardwicke Stakes. Just like Galileo all those years ago, however, the Ballydoyle contenders face an older Godolphin globe-trotter as their potentially toughest rival with Charlie Appleby fielding Breeders’ Cup Turf and Dubai Sheema Classic winner Rebel’s Romance.

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