NEWS – Horse Racing Free Bets
King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes
The next major race of the British Flat racing season is the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes, due off at 4.25 p.m. on Saturday, 24th July. The Group 1 contest, run over 1 mile 4 furlongs at Ascot Racecourse in Berkshire, often provides the opportunity to assess the merits of the current Classic generation relative to their elders. This looks to be the case again this year, with the winners of the Epsom Derby and Irish Derby amongst the entries, together with several top class older horses.
At the time of writing, the Sir Michael Stoute trained pair, Workforce (1/1 Paddy Power – £20 Free Bets) and Harbinger (5/2 with Bet365 – £200 Free Bets) dominate the betting. Workforce has raced just three times in his career, but belied his inexperience with a commanding 7-length victory in the Epsom Derby, where Jan Vermeer (14/1 with Ladbrokes – £25 Free Bets, Coral – £20 Free Bets and William Hill – £25 Free Bets) finished 11½ lengths behind in fourth. Workforce broke the course record at Epsom then and it was difficult not to be impressed with the ease of his victory. Jan Vermeer has since finished third, beaten just 2 lengths by Cape Blanco (6/1 with William Hill bookmakers), in the Irish Derby, so the form looks solid.
Cape Blanco missed the Epsom Derby for the Prix Du Jockey Club, over 1 mile 2½ furlongs, at Chantilly, but could finish only tenth, beaten 8¾ lengths by easy winner Lope de Vega. Cape Blanco returned to form with a workmanlike win in the Irish Derby, where Jan Vermeer and the Epsom Derby runner-up, At First Sight (66/1 with Blue Square – £66 Free Bets and 888 Sport) finished behind, but that appears to give Workforce the edge, with the distinct possibility of improvement still to come.
Aidan O’Brien has complicated matters by declaring six horses, Cape Blanco, Jan Vermeer and At First Sight, plus the Ascot Gold Cup runner-up, Age Of Aquarius (20/1 with Stan James – £25 Free Bets) and the other outsiders, Fencing Master (66/1 with Victor Chandler bookmakers and Battleoftrafalgar 250/1. The first three named appear held by Workforce and the last two appear to have no realistic chance, so that leaves the 4-year-old Age Of Aquarius.
The son of Galileo has won just two of eight starts, a maiden at Dundalk as a 2-year-old and the Group 3 Derby Trial Stakes at Lingfield as a 3-year-old, but was seventh in last year’s Epsom Derby and second, beaten just ¼ length by Rite Of Passage, in the Group 1 Ascot Gold Cup on his latest start. He has 1½ lengths to find with Sir Michael Stoute’s other entry, Harbinger, on their running in the Ormonde Stakes at Chester earlier this season, but, even so, he may well prove to be the pick of the Ballydoyle sextet and looks overpriced at the odds on offer.
That said, his Ormonde Stakes conqueror Harbinger looked like a horse that was going places when hacking up in the Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot on his next start. Barshiba, who finished third, beaten 9½ lengths, went on to win the Group 2 Lancashire Oaks on her next start, so once again the form looks solid. Indeed, Harbinger is starting to fulfil the potential he showed last season, when he was mooted as a St. Leger contender and seems certain to be a tough nut for the others, including Workforce, to crack.
On balance, it is not difficult to see why the leading bookmakers are currently betting 6/1 bar the Stoute pair and, with stable jockey Ryan Moore apparently preferring Workforce to his stable companion, it is no surprise that Workforce is ante-post favourite.
It would be unfair to finish without mentioning a horse that has finished second in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe for the last two seasons running and it is Mick Channon’s 7-year-old, Youmzain (20/1 with Totesport – £25 Free Bet and William Hill bookmakers) who has that unenviable record. The globe-trotting son of Sinndar, himself a winner of the Epsom Derby and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, has his quirks and has not won for two years, but a return to the form that saw him beaten just two lengths by the all-conquering Sea The Stars at Longchamp last October would give him every chance. Indeed, he was beaten just a nose in the Group 1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud on his latest start and his current price is bordering on insulting. That said, no 7-year-old has ever won the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes and only one horse older than 5 years, Swain in 1998, has won the race since its inception in 1951.