How's the 2024 King George VI And Queen Elizabeth QIPCO Stakes at Ascot shaping up?

• Venue: Ascot Racecourse, Berkshire
• Time & Date: 3.40, Saturday July 27
• Click here for latest racecard and free video form

The King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes has often lit up the Flat season’s summer.

Grundy and Bustino in 1975 – the race of the century. Derby winners like Troy in 1979, Shergar in 1981, Reference Point in 1987, Nashwan in 1989, Generous in 1991, Lammtarra in 1995, Galileo in 2001 and Adayar in 2021, supplemented their Epsom successes with King George wins against their elders.

We’ve had deep renewals, too, like Swain’s in 1997, when he beat Helissio, Pilsudski and Singspiel. Another great battle when Enable got the better of Crystal Ocean in 2019. Sensational performances like Montjeu, who swaggered to a length-and-three-quarter victory over Fantastic Light in 2000, and Harbinger, who recorded a Timeform rating of 140 following his 11-length win in 2010.

Last year we had a compelling race, with Hukum edging out Westover by a head as the older horses came to the fore. A brilliant horse race, hefty fines and suspensions for the first two jockeys home, Jim Crowley and Rob Hornby, for breaching the whip rules, the sting in that particular tail.

The King George has not been without its challenges. Below-par renewals, small fields, no three-year-olds, the midsummer highlight for British racing has on occasion suffered as it battles with races like the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and Breeders’ Cup Turf to showcase the best mile and a half horses on the planet.

So how’s this year’s renewal shaping up?

Leading trainer in the race, Sir Michael Stoute, responsible for Harbinger and five other King George winners, has no representative. He might’ve done had the season panned out differently for his Passenger, but he’s one of a few high-profile horses who haven’t been sighted this summer.

White Birch, also a son of Ulysees, is another. John Joseph Murphy’s four-year-old had a productive spring but his bloods haven’t been right since. Economics, the wide-margin Dante winner, hasn’t been spotted on a racetrack since York.

John & Thady Gosden are struggling to find top-level contenders in the post-Frankie Dettori era and it looks unlikely they’ll be adding a sixth Clarehaven winner of the King George, for all that Emily Upjohn might turn up. She has struggled to find her best this season and has twice been well beaten in this race.

The Derby one-two, City Of Troy and Ambiente Friendly, look destined to clash in the Juddmonte International over 10 furlongs at York.

It means the three-year-old challenge is on the thin side, but there is ambitious Pulborough handler David Menuisier and his Irish Derby second, Sunway. The son of Galiway has improved with every run this season, getting better as he moves up in distance.

He fully deserved to finish ahead of Epsom runner-up Ambiente Friendly at the Curragh and he consequently deserves his place in this line up. A Derby winner he isn’t, but he ain’t far off and when we’re crying out for clashes of the generations at this time of year his presence will certainly do.

The weight-for-age allowance of 11lb from the older horses gives him some sort of chance, but he’s up against it. Only three three-year-olds have triumphed in this race in the last 20 years and they were Nathaniel, Enable and Adayar, the cream of their crops (betting without Frankel).

Connections of last year’s second, Ralph Beckett and Juddmonte, look likely to try and go one better with the Camelot filly Bluestocking, a horse who has shaken off an affliction of second-itus now she has gained more experience.

Winless in six races at three despite some super efforts in defeat, including at Ascot, twice, she has improved at four, slamming Free Wind by six lengths in the Group 2 Middleton takes at York before landing her maiden Group 1 in the Pretty Polly at the Curragh, at the expense of the aforementioned Emily Upjohn.

Back against the male horses she brings a different line of form into the race and she looks the obvious one to capitalise if this doesn’t turn into another Coolmore v Godolphin shootout. But it could do.

Evoking memories of Fantastic Light’s turn of the century battles with Montjeu and Galileo, as Adayar versus Love did three years ago, here we have Aidan O’Brien’s Auguste Rodin against Charlie Appleby’s Rebel’s Romance in an old-fashioned battle of the big mobs and there’s a contrast of styles for good measure.

Auguste Rodin remains capable of bombing out – just as he did when beaten 22 lengths by Rebel’s Romance in the Sheema Classic on March 30 – but when he’s on point he just does enough. Four of his last five wins have been by less than a length and the other was his unimpressive length-and-a-half win in the 2023 Irish Derby.

Rebel’s Romance tends to do things differently. His Breeders’ Cup Turf win came by over two lengths in a course record time, while he’s won his last three races by a combined seven lengths. He can look flashy and powerful and is capable of putting his rivals to the sword.

His best has been abroad, though, and now he has to prove he can do it on British soil.

Champions: Full Gallop aired on ITV on Friday night and it showcased how exciting jumps racing can be, warts and all, as episode one focused on the winter highlight we know and love as the King George.

Flat racing’s King George is just as capable of providing the drama. Here’s hoping we get another renewal they’ll be talking about in 20 years’ time.

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