Why Ascot’s King George may hold a key to what happens at Del Mar in November

As you’d probably expect with two of the very best mile-and-a-half turf races in the world, there are a lot of similarities between the Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf and this Saturday’s King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot.

Indeed, come the Breeders’ Cup World Championships at Del Mar on the first Saturday of November, there’s unlikely to be many better guides to what’s about to happen in the most important turf race of the meet than what did happen in Britain’s most important all-aged 12-furlong Group 1 on the last Saturday of July.

Certainly that should be the case as far as the European contingent at Del Mar is concerned, and Europe has something of a stranglehold on the Longines Turf. Since 2000, 13 of the 18 winners (there was one dead-heat) have been European, including seven of the last nine.

The King George is one of seven Breeders’ Cup ‘Win and You’re In’ international contests that give the winner an automatic place in the Turf. The first three (one in Argentina, one in Brazil and one in Japan) have already been run. Next comes the King George, the Juddmonte International at York next month, and the Grosser Preis von Baden and the Irish Champion Stakes, both in September.

Just three King George winners have also triumphed in the Turf - Daylami (1999), Conduit (2008 and 2009) and Highland Reel last year - but the big players in what could be a vintage renewal at Ascot on Saturday have classic Breeders’ Cup Turf résumés.

Trainers

Seven Europeans are in the top 20 in the TRC Global Rankings, and five of them are represented on Saturday, accounting for the first eight in the ante-post betting lists:

O’Brien (six) and Stoute (four) have won ten Longines Breeders’ Cup Turfs between them, including six of the last nine. Bin Suroor has won two. Both Gosden (four wins in other races) and Appleby (one) are proven on the Breeders' Cup stage.

Sires

The world’s top two in the TRC rankings, Galileo and Dubawi, account for five of the eight market leaders, and the favourite, the Oaks and Irish Oaks winner Enable, is a granddaughter of Galileo.

The world #1 has sired four winners of the Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf (which puts him level with his own sire, Sadler’s Wells), including three of the last four.

A further two runners are grandsons of Galileo, the Mark Johnston-trained Permian and the Argentinian 66-1 shot Sixties Song (who was third in the first Longines Turf qualifier of the season, the Gran Premio 25 de Mayo in Buenos Aires in May).

In all, four stallions in the world top 20 account for seven of the ten market leaders, the main exception being the late Godolphin stalwart Halling, who is now ranked #197 but is responsible for two of Saturday’s contenders.

Apart from Galileo and Kitten's Joy (with four winners in other races), the sires in the list below are all awaiting their first triumph at the World Championships. That wait can surely not be long, certainly in the case of the mighty Dubawi.

Owners

The big operations in the TRC rankings have won nine of the last 20 Longines Breeders’ Cup Turfs, including the last four, and they would appear to have Saturday’s King George between them, being responsible for all the first eight in the betting, although it must be noted that one of their number, Juddmonte, for all its Breeders’ Cup success over the years, has yet to win the Turf.

Click here for a list of last week’s biggest TRC Global Rankings points gainers.

Click here for a list of the week’s Group and Graded winners.

Frontiersman, Hawkbill and Permian have since been withdrawn