Calandagan lands King George victory to seal repeat success for trainer Graffard

Five runners went to post for the 75th running of the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes on Saturday. Despite the limited cast list, it proved to be a compelling two-and-a-half minute spectacle with plot twists from start to finish. Calandagan, the 11-10 favourite, answered the final question – had Kalapana slipped her field? – with a relentless finishing drive to the line.

The first surprise came a stride or two after the start, as Aidan O’Brien’s rank outsider Continuous, generally assumed to be a pacemaker for his stable companion, Jan Brueghel, was instead restrained in second in a wingman’s position, as Jan Brueghel and Ryan Moore set a steady gallop.

It was an interesting ploy by the Ballydoyle operation and Mickael Barzalona, on Calandagan, was not ideally placed at the back of the field given the slow fractions at the front end. He was last coming off the home turn, while Oisin Murphy was perfectly positioned to strike for home on Kalapana, who was narrowly beaten in a 10-furlong Group One last month, and he kicked her past Jan Brueghel a quarter of a mile out.

Kalapana quickly carved out a two-length lead, but Calandagan, who looked ill at ease on the track behind Jan Brueghel in last month’s Coronation Cup at Epsom, went through the gears more smoothly this time and was soon eating into her advantage. Calandagan nosed in front around a dozen strides from the line and was a length ahead at the post.

Trainer Francis-Henri Graffard shows off the trophy after Calandagan won the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot. Photograph: John Walton/PA

It was a second successive Group One success for Calandagan after four second-place finishes at the highest level had seen him cast as a horse that kept finding one too good. It was also a second successive King George victory for his trainer, Francis-Henri Graffard, following a 25-1 upset with Goliath last year.

“Everyone was expecting a lot of pace in the race,” Graffard said. “Aidan and his team do a lot of work on tactics, so it’s always interesting, but he’s an easy ride and I’m glad he had the time to come and catch the filly.

“He took a little while to hit his stride, but Mickael said that he was waiting. He really helped him to balance and I knew I was going to catch her. When she kicked for home, she was impressive, and I thought, I’m going to be second again.”

As a gelding, Calandagan is barred from running in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, but he could head for the International Stakes at York next month, in which he finished second behind City Of Troy last summer.

“He’s proven in every single race, even when he’s beaten, that he’s a very good horse and the way that he can quicken is very impressive,” Graffard said. “Whatever tactics the opponents have, we will be very effective.”

Unlike Calandagan, Kalpana is a live candidate for the Arc, where she would be bidding to emulate Bluestocking, last year’s winner, a four-year-old filly who was second in the King George.

“She’s a class act and we’re excited about the autumn,” Andrew Balding, Kalpana’s trainer, said. “I would have thought that was a career-best effort and we’ll be working back from Paris in October.”

At York, there was a surprise defeat for the up-and-coming four-year-old Almaqam, as Karl Burke’s Royal Champion powered nearly three lengths clear in the York Stakes to record the first Group Two win of his career at the age of seven.

Almaqam was sent off as the 6-4 favourite to follow up his comfortable defeat of Ombudsman, a subsequent Group One winner at Royal Ascot, at Sandown in May, but Ed Walker’s colt could not respond as Clifford Lee launched Royal Champion into the lead after travelling well throughout.