Rebel’s Romance gets an overdue first opportunity to show home fans what he’s capable of at the top level when he takes on dual Derby winner Auguste Rodin and another seven classy middle distance performers in the £1.25m King George VI and Queen Elizabeth QIPCO Stakes at Ascot on Saturday.
Already a Group or Grade 1 winner in Germany (twice), the USA (2022 Breeders’ Cup Turf), Dubai and Hong Kong, the six year old was rated the world’s joint best horse in the latest Longines World’s Best Racehorse Rankings, upsides this year’s Betfred Derby and Coral-Eclipse winner City Of Troy on 123, a pound ahead of Auguste Rodin.
However, while unbeaten in all his five starts in the UK, he has raced here only once since his Group 3 win in the Goodwood’s Glorious Stakes two years ago, and that was when Charlie Appleby used a modest Listed race at Kempton last December to help set him up for a successful tilt at the very valuable, but merely Group 3, H H The Amir Trophy in Doha in February and then Dubai in March. Champion jockey William Buick, seeking a seventh top-level win of 2024 and a third King George win after Nathaniel (2011) and Adayar (2021), believes that Rebel’s Romance is ideally equipped for Saturday’s race.
“He’s an international superstar, but he just hasn’t had the opportunity he deserves until now to run in a Group 1 over here,” he said. “He had an unbelievable winter and then on into spring, when he went to Hong Kong. He’s obviously been on the go a long time, but his races have been spaced out very nicely and he’s taken them well. Charlie is very happy with him.
“Bar the Derby, the King George is our biggest middle-distance race. It’s a hugely important race, steeped in so much history, and it’s our mid-summer highlight. It’s very special, and we are all looking forward to running.”
He added: “We tried something different – making the running – when he won at Doha and he was good there, and then in the Sheema Classic he beat a field stacked with quality from all around the world, including Shahryar and Liberty Island from Japan.
“It was a proper race, and although things possibly worked out in our favour that day he still had to go and do it, and he won well. We all know it’s not easy traveling to Hong Kong with a horse, but he backed it all up by getting the job done there on a very hot and humid day.
“He’s a huge imposing horse who you can’t help but spot, and he’s very uncomplicated, very genuine, and obviously very good. His biggest asset is probably his very high cruising speed, because you’ll see that when other horses start coming under pressure he’s still traveling. He’s high class and it’s lovely that he’s now getting a proper shot at a top level win at home.”
RODIN OUT TO RIGHT THE WRONGS OF 2023
Auguste Rodin, who is joined by stable-mates Luxembourg and Hans Andersen, trailed home in last place behind Rebel’s Romance in the Sheema Classic, beaten more than 20 lengths. In another mystifying performance he finished a tailed-off last of ten here in the King George 12 months ago too, and before that he was nearly last in the QIPCO 2000 Guineas. However, there’s no doubt that when he’s good he’s very, very good.
Last month’s Royal Ascot defeat of French challengers Zarakem and Horizon Dore in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes was close to the level he achieved when successful last autumn in the Irish Champion Stakes and Breeders’ Cup Turf, and it was a sixth career win at Group or Grade 1 level.
Typically Aidan O’Brien, the most recent of whose four winners here was Highland Reel back in 2016, blamed himself after the Prince of Wales’s for what he described as the earlier “blips” and spoke of the “very special” ride that Ryan Moore had given the colt.
He said: “I was probably giving the wrong instructions all along. We were riding him too far back, and when there was no pace he was too far out of the race. We changed everything and Ryan said he was going to ride him positive from now on and engage him straight away. Honestly, I feel the blips were my fault, the instructions were wrong, and it was time to start getting it right. We saw today, when he gets to the front he waits, and then he goes again.”
Luxembourg, beaten eight lengths into fourth behind Hukum here 12 months ago, has a more consistent profile and is a four-time Group 1 winner himself. He made the running when beating Hamish in last month’s Holland Cooper Coronation Cup at Epsom for his first win at Saturday’s distance, but front-running duties here are more likely to fall to Hans Andersen.
JOY FOR BECKETT AND BLUESTOCKING?
Bluestocking, who got up late to beat Emily Upjohn in last month’s mile-and-a-quarter Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh, had the option of waiting for next week’s Qatar Nassau Stakes over the same distance, but Ralph Beckett has said he is keen to run here “provided it’s not rattling fast”. The cheekpieces she had worn for her previous two starts were missing in Ireland, but they will be back on.
The only filly in the race, she was second three times over this trip last year, including in the Irish Oaks and the QIPCO British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes, and she carries the same Juddmonte silks as Enable, who was the last female winner of the King George when taking it for an unprecedented third time in 2020.
Beckett is enjoying a fantastic season and won the Irish Oaks last Saturday, but he hasn’t had much luck here in the past, his Irish Derby winner Westover finishing last but one when favourite two years ago and then going down by a head to Hukum after a sustained duel 12 months ago.
MEUNISIER HOPES FOR GROUP 1 CHANGE OF FORTUNE AFTER SERIES OF NEAR MISSES
Three-year-olds used to more than hold their own against their older rivals here and provided no fewer than eight of 10 winners in the 1970s, but there have been just six winners of that age since the turn of the century and this year their only representative is Sunway, who was a Group 1 winner at two but has yet to score in four starts this year.
David Menuisier has never lost faith in the colt, and his strong-finishing second to Los Angeles in the Irish Derby was worth waiting for, notwithstanding some understandable frustration at it being the third time the stable had been beaten less than a length in a Classic this year. James Doyle takes over from regular rider Oisin Murphy, who is required for Hardwicke Stakes third Middle Earth.
Menuisier is surprised that Sunway stands alone among his age group, but he has no doubt that he is worth his place in the line-up. He said: “It seems to be the trend these days that less and less three-year-olds run in the race, but you have to try them against older horses some time and they get an 11lb allowance. This is only the second race for them this summer, and a three-year-old won the first of them (City Of Troy in the Eclipse), so it’s doable.”
He added: “Sunway was possibly caught in traffic a bit at a crucial stage in Ireland, but we came back from there really chuffed because he’d vindicated what we thought of him, not thinking we were unlucky in the way Tamfana was in the 1000 Guineas.
“It took him a while to come to himself this season, and I’m not sure why, but he was a different horse already in the Prix du Jockey Club, where he nearly fell over coming out of the stalls, and the faster ground in Ireland worked in his favour as I think he thrives on quick conditions and in fast-run races, even though he won on testing ground last year.
“Having taken so long to come to himself I didn’t want to stop, and he came out of Ireland absolutely buzzing – kicking and bucking as if it hadn’t taken too much out of him. All the lights are green.”
HAGGAS GLOBETROTTER AND FRENCH RAIDER GOLIATH ROUND OFF 9-STRONG FIELD
Like Rebel’s Romance, the William Haggas-trained Dubai Honour has done all of his top-level winning abroad, gaining two Grade 1 wins in Australia before his recent Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud success. Interestingly, while he used to seem best at a mile and a quarter with plenty of give underfoot, jockey Tom Marquand believes he might nowadays be better suited by a mile and a half on a sounder
Christophe Soumillon was on board when Hurricane Run registered the last French-trained win in the King George in 2006, and Francis Graffard has enlisted his services for Goliath, who had three-quarters of a length to spare over the staying-on Middle Earth when the pair chased home clear winner Isle Of Jura in the Hardwicke.
QIPCO King George day will be broadcast across the world by 19 broadcasters covering 118 territories. Domestically, ITV Racing will broadcast four races live, with Sky Sports Racing showing all eight races. For the first-time ever FOX Sports 1 will showcase the mid-summer showpiece in America while Sportsnet will also offer coverage in Canada.
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