Sir Michael Stoute needs to win King George to improve his standing

Sir Michael Stoute has won the last two runnings of the King George, but is without a Group One success this season. Photograph: Rex Features

"It's difficult not to spot it," Sir Michael Stoute says when reminded that, by his normal standards, eighth place in the trainers' championship is at least five or six places too low. "Or to be told about it." He laughs, but for a little longer than necessary. Whatever else he thinks about his current position in the league table, Stoute clearly does not find it particularly funny.

It would be surprising if he did. Stoute will be 65 in October and has been training for nearly 40 years, with 10 championships at regular intervals between 1981 and 2009, but the instinct to compete that took him to the top of the sport is as sharp as it was when he took out a licence in 1972. He drew a blank at Royal Ascot, for the first time in 16 years, but nearly a third of his winners in 2011 have arrived this month, and it is time to start gathering in the Group Ones, too.

Workforce, the likely favourite for the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot on Saturday afternoon, could restore Stoute's season to a more conventional pattern in the space of two and a half minutes. This is the 17th Group One of the season in Britain, and the 19th leg of the Qipco British Champion Series, and both sequences have yet to see a Stoute-trained winner. With a first prize of just over ?600,000, though, victory for last year's Derby and Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner would spring Stoute's yard into third place in the table, overtaking the latest knight in Newmarket, Sir Henry Cecil, in the process.

Stoute has won this race for the last two seasons, and five times in all going back to Shergar in 1981, who was his only three-year-old winner. Golan's victory on his seasonal debut in 2002 was one of the finest training performances of his career, and victory for Workforce would demonstrate once again that Stoute has few peers when it comes to coaxing enthusiasm and improvement from four- and five?year?olds.

"I think that the more they mature, the better you get to know them, so as a consequence they are easier to train," Stoute says. "Horses like Opera House, Saddlers' Hall, Pilsudski and Singspiel were all good horses from a young age who continued to progress. They were tough, honest competitors and had a lot of ability.

"We're lucky in that we get some very nice, quality horses, but there are not too many that even get to a Classic trial, never mind a Classic. Some of them are just not going to be mature enough to go that route, and often, when they start full work in the springtime, you've got to make a judgment call and determine whether that's where you should be aiming.

"Workforce was a better three-year-old than those, but he's not got too many miles on the clock. He's a big horse, 16 2, very clean-limbed and sound. He's a heavy horse too, so he doesn't want the ground too quick as a result. We wouldn't risk him on fast ground, and I'm hoping that it's not going to dry out too much at Ascot."

Even with his reputation as a trainer of older horses, Stoute must have been a little surprised when Prince Khalid Abdullah decided to keep Workforce in training this season. The prize money that Workforce might win is an irrelevance, but the prince, who is as interested in breeding as he is in racing, has foregone 100 or more Workforce foals next spring. To make the decision worthwhile, Workforce needs to enhance his reputation still further, and victory in a race in which he was only fifth – to his stablemate Harbinger – last year would certainly do that.

"There's accountability in any business, so it's great to have him at four," Stoute says of the calculations to be made in deciding when to send a horse to stud. "But they're horses, and so things aren't always straightforward and the slightest blip can mean that they miss what was going to be their main target.

"You've just got to take it race by race, and we'll see how he comes out of it on Saturday before making any more plans, though we want to have another stab at the Arc. It will all unravel as the season goes on, Saturday is the big day."

Ryan Moore rode St Nicholas Abbey, one of Workforce's main rivals, when he won the Coronation Cup at Epsom last month, but Stoute has first call on his services and Moore's experience could prove vital in a small field.

"It hasn't been a big field for the King George for the last few years, but it's a good-quality race and Ryan's very good on the big days," Stoute says. "He's very good on the little days as well, but he's very cool in these races and a lot of the decisions [about how to ride the race] are left to him."

Moore has seemed less than committed to a serious run at the jockeys' title, but he remains a serious contender and his boss could be on the trail of an 11th championship if Workforce wins on Saturday, with only Aidan O'Brien and Richard Hannon then in front of him. "You don't always have the same quality of horses every year and that's where we are," Stoute says, "but there's still a little way to go and we're going to see what we can do."

View the original article here

Frankie Dettori in tense wait for Rewilding's run in King George

Frankie Dettori in a celebratory jump off King George contender Rewilding after winning at Royal Ascot. Photograph: Eddie Keogh/Reuters

It has already been a pleasantly productive year for Godolphin and, over the next six days, it may become significantly better. Indeed, if Blue Bunting manages to win Sunday's Irish Oaks and Rewilding follows up in the King George at Ascot on Saturday, there would be few years to compare with it.

But those who work for Sheikh Mohammed's outfit have learned caution and there is not so much as a breath of premature excitement in the camp. Frankie Dettori, in his 18th year as Godolphin's principal jockey, was happy and relaxed at Newbury on Saturday but, asked how 2011 was going for his team, would only say: "A week on Monday, you ask me."

Simon Crisford, Godolphin's spokesman, offers a variation on the theme. "It takes more than one swallow to make a summer," he says when asked to reflect on the successes so far.

Self-deprecation is a likeable trait but "one swallow" is surely underplaying it. The famous royal blue silks have led home their rivals in the Dubai Sheema Classic, the Prince of Wales's Stakes and the 1,000 Guineas, the first time since 2002 that Godolphin have managed to win a British Classic other than the unfashionable St Leger.

The first two of those wins were achieved by Rewilding, trained by Mahmood al-Zarooni and described by Crisford as "the No1 horse in our team at the moment. We've got to see him win [the King George] before we start comparing him to some of the best horses we've had, like Fantastic Light and Daylami. He has the potential to be right there with them but this is a key race for him."

The King George, arguably the most prestigious Flat race run in this country, would be key for anyone but has particular meaning for Godolphin, whose power in the late 90s was underlined by three consecutive victories. Since those heady times, it has been more of a benefit for their Irish rivals, Coolmore. Godolphin have notched a single winner in the past 11 years.

"It's a great race," says Dettori. "As a young chap [growing up in Italy], the only three races they showed on TV, from abroad, was the Derby, the King George and the Arc. They're the famous three and they've always carried some importance for me.

"If they all turn up [on Saturday], it's going to be a great race, with Workforce and St Nicholas Abbey. But we hope for the best."

The biggest payday of Rewilding's career came in the Sheema Classic in March, when his easy three-length win netted him ?1.9m (and never mind that his owners were basically winning back their own money). But there was more significance to his victory in the Prince Of Wales's Stakes, over a distance of a mile and a quarter that ought to have been too short for him.

"Obviously, we were worried they might run him off his legs," Dettori reflects, "but he surprised a lot of people and what he showed is the tremendous will to win that he's got. So You Think wasn't stopping and he had to go after him and get past him." The jockey did not think he could win until the last 100 yards.

"We found out that we had to space his races so we don't have to train him so hard any more. And I guess the flop [in last year's St Leger] was a combination of the race coming too early and perhaps the ground was a bit too soft. But he's a straightforward horse and, when he runs, he always gives his best."

The King George will fall five weeks and three days after Rewilding had what seemed a hard race at Royal Ascot. Even though the runner-up has since won the Eclipse, there is bound to be a concern that Rewilding will not be able to bounce back fast enough to show his best form on Saturday.

Crisford puts a brave face on this subject. "If it was longer, it would be better but six weeks is a decent gap for any horse. Sometimes the calendar dictates when you have to run.

"It's not at the back of our minds. We've seen nothing to suggest that it might have left a mark on him."

Blue Bunting was only fourth when favourite for the Epsom Oaks last month but Dettori puts that down to "a bit of a mess-up". Dancing Rain and Wonder Of Wonders finished first and second after being allowed an easy lead and the Godolphin filly would have been third if the jockey had not eased her close home, for which he has since served a suspension.

This time, Rumh will be used to set the race up for her from the front. "They're never easy to win, the Classics," Dettori says, "but I think we're going to bridge the gap from Epsom."

View the original article here