The Queen’s runner Dartmouth will go to post with a favourite’s chance in the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot on Saturday after Postponed, odds-on for the race on Wednesday morning, was ruled out of contention by a respiratory infection. The Queen has won the race named in honour of her parents only once, in 1954, and will hope to bridge a 62-year gap just weeks after celebrating her 90th birthday.
Dartmouth, the winner of the Group Two Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot last month, was the second-favourite at around 6-1 after he was added to the field at a cost of £75,000 on Monday, behind Postponed, a 1-2 chance to win the race for the second year running.
The shape of the race was transformed in a moment when Roger Varian, Postponed’s trainer, revealed on his website that the five-year-old had failed to show his usual sparkle on the gallops.
The King George was first run in 1951, a year before the Queen’s accession, and the monarch took the fourth running of the race with Aureole, who was bred by her father. Aureole had finished second in the 1953 Derby behind Pinza, who took the King George the same year. The closest the Queen has come to a second success in the race was in 1974 when Highclere, successful in the 1,000 Guineas and French Oaks earlier in the season, finished second to the outstanding Dahlia.
In what is now a very open renewal of Ascot’s midsummer showpiece, Dartmouth is top-priced at 9-4 to give Sir Michael Stoute, his trainer, a record-breaking sixth success in the race, while Highland Reel, who finished just a head behind him when second in the Hardwicke, is an 11-4 chance to reverse the form. Wings Of Desire, the Dante winner at York in May and the only three-year-old with a credible chance, is 9-2, while Erupt, fifth home in last year’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, is 5-1 and it is 20-1 bar the four.
“Up until this point, Postponed had not given us any worry during his training regime,” Varian, who took over the training of Postponed last autumn, said on Wednesday morning. “However, we felt Postponed did not work with his usual zest [on Wednesday morning] and a subsequent scope showed he is suffering from a respiratory infection.
“This news is very disappointing and it is a real shame for Sheikh Mohammed Obaid [Postponed’s owner], the team and the racing public that he will not line up on Saturday.
“But, as is always the case, the interests of the horse must come first. If he is not 100%, the only sensible thing to do is not to run.”
Postponed has won all three of his starts since joining Varian’s stable from his near-neighbour Luca Cumani, who saddled him to record a narrow success in last year’s King George.
Postponed’s last two victories have been at Group One level, in the Dubai Sheema Classic at Meydan in March and an easy success in the Coronation Cup at Epsom in early June.
Postponed moved to the head of the market for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe following his success at Epsom and remains favourite for the showpiece event of European racing, to be held at Chantilly on 2 October.
“We will let the horse recover from this setback before making a plan of where he runs next,” Varian said. “We still have many big days ahead to look forward to.”
