Taghrooda to be crowned as King

Ascot's King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes is a race I will always have fond memories of - having won it on some very nice horses in the past - and tomorrow I'll be hoping the Sea The Stars filly Taghrooda will be able to maintain her winning sequence.

I was hoping to see her in 
action at the Curragh last week 
in the Irish Oaks but connections took the bold move to skip that 
race in favour of the King George and it looks like a move that could pay off.

She's only a three-year-old and that means she is getting 15lbs from some of the horses, which is a big help at this time of the year as the three-year-old fillies are only maturing at the moment.

She is definitely an exciting filly and I would be hopeful that she could do it, but Telescope was very impressive at Royal Ascot and Sir Michael Stoute seems to have him where he promised to get to and he'll be a danger to all.

I'm not sure if Eagle Top is going to run but if he does he'll only strengthen John Gosden's hand in the race.

Bad call

On the basis of his Royal Ascot performance, you can see why they've supplemented him but 
it will be a bad call if they don't 
run after paying that sort of 
money.

The ground will have to suit him, though, or I doubt they will take the chance.

You have Trading Leather and Mukhadram in there, and a pacemaker in Leitir Mor, so it's going to be a fairly run race.

They won't hang around so there should be no excuses and the best horse should win.

It'll be a no-nonsense affair and hopefully the filly will come through.

It was a very lucky race for me as I managed to win it five times on some very good types for some very good trainers.

My first was in 1990 on Belmez for Sir Henry Cecil, and then King's Theatre also for Sir Henry in 1994, and then two years in a row for Coolmore on Montjeu in 2000 for John Hammond and Galileo for Aidan in 2001, and finally John Oxx with Azamour in 2005.

The only one I missed was Pilsudski for Sir Michael Stoute in 1997, when we finished second to Swain who won the race two years in a row.

In those years there was a lot 
of very good mile-and-a-half 
horses around - Coolmore had a lot and Godolphin had a lot - and while they may not have been 
the same calibre of winners in recent years, they are the type 
of horses that come in batches 
and I think we'll witness a very good winner of tomorrow's renewal.