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 Kalpana 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.
