Ascot commemorated the 40th anniversary of Grundy’s and Bustino’s famous duel in the King George in the runup to this year’s renewal and, in the closing stages here on Saturday, Postponed and Eagle Top produced a tribute of their own. A nose separated them at the line, with Postponed emerging as the winner having been headed a few strides from the line, and though the Derby winner, Golden Horn, was a late absentee, this was still a race that few in a crowd of tens of thousands will quickly forget.
It was a result with twists and subplots, too, as the same horses had finished a nose apart – though in reverse order – when second and third in the Hardwicke Stakes here last month. The fallout from that race was significant, with John Gosden – the trainer of both Eagle Top and Golden Horn – accusing Adam Kirby, the jockey aboard Postponed, of “foul riding” as he crowded in on Frankie Dettori, riding Eagle Top, in the first half-mile.
Dettori, who was due to ride Golden Horn, switched to Eagle Top when the Derby winner was scratched. Kirby, though, was at Newmarket on Saturday, having been replaced aboard Postponed by the colt’s owner, Sheikh Mohammed Obaid al-Maktoum. Instead, it was Andrea Atzeni, the Sheikh’s retained jockey last season, who stepped in for the winning ride and the most prestigious success of his career.
Kirby said on Thursday that Postponed, the winner of last season’s Great Voltigeur Stakes at York, would be a different horse with a solid pace to chase. He got that here as Romsdal, another runner from the Gosden yard, made the running with Atzeni tracking behind, and his rider then went for home two furlongs out. Eagle Top, sent off favourite at 5-2, ran him down and edged ahead well inside the final furlong, but Postponed fought bravely to force his head back in front on the line.
The spectators had hoped to see a piece of history with Golden Horn attempting to become only the fourth horse to win the Derby, Eclipse Stakes and King George in the same season. In the end, it was a different kind of history but noteworthy all the same, as Luca Cumani – who took out a licence a few months after the Grundy beat Bustino – took the King George for the first time.
“I’m very proud of both the horse and the jockey,” Cumani said. “I’ve been second three times, it’s the championship race of the summer and it’s a defining moment in a horse’s career and also in a trainer’s and a jockey’s career. We said all along that what happened in the Hardwicke was best forgotten and it wasn’t a true result. It was a slow-run race and the horses were not concentrating on the race but on beating each other up. Today was a clean-run race with a good pace given the ground, and we had the best horse, but all credit to Eagle Top too. I certainly wasn’t sure that we were in front when they passed the post.”
Atzeni, too, could not celebrate victory until the result of the photograph was announced.
“I looked at Frankie and he was smiling,” the jockey said, “but then after we went past the line I could see him looking at his number too. It was very tight and I thought I was beat for a few strides but he stuck his head out. He’s very tough and we’ve always liked him. I didn’t think he’d like the soft ground to be honest but fair play to the owner, if it was me I probably wouldn’t have run the horse. And I wanted to drop him in, but the owner said there’s only one King George and I want you to go forward. It was the best moment of my life to win the King George.”
The Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe is another major race that has eluded Cumani in his 40-year career, and Europe’s most prestigious all-aged race at Longchamp in October is now likely to be the target for Postponed. Both Postponed and Eagle Top are 20-1 with Hills in a market headed by Treve, the winner for the last two years, at 9-4.
“Sheikh Mohammed Obaid likes to be involved in these sorts of decisions but I would have thought the natural progression would have to be the Arc. It’s another big challenge with horses like Treve and probably Golden Horn or the other Gosden horse [the Irish Derby winner Jack Hobbs] but he’s won the King George and we’re not going to go back to Catterick.”
