Colm O'Donoghue handed Cape Blanco ride in King George
Colm O'Donoghue has been given one of the biggest chances of his career with the ride on Cape Blanco in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot on Saturday.
The ride on the Aidan O'Brien-trained colt, who won the Irish Derby at the Curragh last time out, came up for grabs after stable jockey Johnny Murtagh picked up a six-day suspension from the Newmarket stewards for his ride on Starspangledbanner in the July Cup.
O'Donoghue is one of O’Brien’s team of jockeys and usually rides the stable’s lesser lights in the major races. Indeed his biggest win so far, in the Group Poule d'Essai des Poulains at Longchamp three years ago, came on Astronomer Royal, who was the outsider of the four O’Brien-trained runners in the race.
Frankie Dettori may be the unquestioned master of Ascot, after his “magnificent seven” in 1996, but him apart, few European jockeys seem quite as comfortable riding there as Olivier Peslier.
The Frenchman’s victory on Westerner in the 2005 Gold Cup may have taken place when the royal meeting was run at York but he made sure the roof on the newly-built grandstand was thoroughly tested when the crowd roared home Ouija Board to an emotional victory in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes the following year. And he was an equally popular winner on Goldikova in the Queen Anne Stakes last month. “Royal Ascot is the best meeting in the world. I like Ascot, it’s a very good track and this year I have a chance to win the King George.”
A French jockey has not ridden the winner of the King George - Christophe Soumillon, the winner on Hurricane Run in 2006, is Belgian - since Yves Saint-Martin won on Pawneese in 1976 but Peslier has gone very close.
Two years ago Peslier almost caused a major upset when he got the sometimes recalcitrant Papal Bull to a half-length of Duke of Marmalade and 12 months later he was a close third on Ask. Both of those rides were for Sir Michael Stoute and Peslier needed no second asking when he was offered the ride on Harbinger by the trainer in this year’s race.
Harbinger may be Stoute’s supposed second string, with stable jockey Ryan Moore electing to ride the Derby winner Workforce, but Peslier is looking forward to the race. “I've had good success for Sir Michael Stoute in the past and I think this year I have a good chance to win,” Peslier said. “I think he is the best horse this year and he is doing very well. I rode him on Saturday morning and he is very well and in good form.
Having now ridden the horse and studied his races, including his impressive victory over course and distance in the Group Two Hardwicke Stakes at the royal meeting last month, Peslier is confident that Harbinger can adapt to whatever tactics are employed in the race; although the decision of Stoute to keep Confront – like Workforce owned by Prince Khalid Abdullah – in the race suggests that there should be an even gallop.
"I think he can go everywhere in the race, and I think he's a very easy horse to ride. I think he’s had a good competition this year. And last time he ran very well at Ascot, he knows the track and I think he has a good chance."
Peslier has a fair handle on some of the others in the race too having recently come up against both the filly Daryakana, trained in France by Alain de Royer-Dupre, and Youmzain last month in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud, in which Peslier beat the pair on Plumania. “I think she’ll run very well,” Peslier said. “Last time in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud she finished very well in third and Youmzain finished second but I think she was a bit unlucky as there wasn't much pace. I think Youmzain will run well because the race at Saint-Cloud was not run at a fast pace.”
However, Peslier has plenty of respect for Workforce after his seven-length victory together at Epsom. "He’s a very nice horse and he won well and I think this is tough competition. The King George is a very good race, it's like the Arc de Triomphe. All the best horses run in it.”
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