Love gets a fillies’ allowance of three pounds in the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes. The three-year-old dual Classic winner also receives 12 pounds from the older horses, so she has all the advantages for Saturday’s Group 1 feature at Ascot.
Weights favour Love in King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes
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The current second favourite for Saturday’s Ascot Group 1 highlight is Magical at a best-priced +350. The Aidan O’Brien-trained runner is a mare and so gets the sex allowance but not the weight-for-age allowance. She carries nine stones and four pounds, while Love carries eight stones and six pounds. Magical will have to produce a career best to beat Love under these race conditions.
Japan, third in the early betting, is another possible runner trained by O’Brien, who has the four horses immediately behind Enable in the ante-post market. Their combined price is -149.99, so you can back the rest of the field at +150. Japan is a four-year-old colt and so has the maximum weight, which might not be manageable. He was third behind Enable by a head in the Eclipse and the two horses run off the same terms in this, so reversing the form will be no mean feat.
Serpentine won the Epsom Derby by five-and-a-half lengths. The other horses never looked like overhauling the winner inside the final two furlongs, but there are doubts about the value of the form. The King George will show whether the Derby produced a fluke result or Serpentine is the best three-year-old colt in training.
Stradivarius appears in some ante-post lists, but the three-time Ascot Gold Cup winner is an unlikely starter. English King did not have much luck in running in the Derby but stayed on to finish fifth, some six-and-a-quarter lengths behind Serpentine. The horse looks a big price at +1600 and offers the best value of the male three-year-olds. However, Love’s additional fillies’ allowance could be crucial and she will be hard to beat with such a generous claim.