John Gosden expects Nathaniel to defend King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes
Veteran trainer, John Gosden, is confident that Nathaniel will be prepared for his title defence in the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot.
The Irish runner managed to win the prestigious event comfortably last year, upsetting the favourite, Workforce. He was priced 11 to 2 back then and put together a spirited show in the end, winning by two lengths and three quarters.
Overall, the four-year-old colt has got an impressive record, winning four times out of eight attempts. Moreover, he finished runner up on three occasions and only dropped out of the top three once in his career.
After his success in the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes last year, Nathaniel had a long break and returned to action in the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown in July this year. There were some extremely good runners lined up for action in the Group-1 event,
but none was able to match the skills of Gosden’s trainee.
The Irish bred runner was given a starting price of 7 to 2 at Sandown and he caused an upset, beating Saeed Bin Suroor’s challenger, Farhh, who was ridden by Frankie Dettori.
Gosden was pleased with the performances of his trainee and expected him to continue delivering some solid runs in the remaining season. However, he was a little uncertain whether which races should he go for.
According to one of the most successful trainers, “He came out of the race well but because of the Olympics and the Jubilee there are only two weeks between the races - there are usually three. We'd like to go to the King George but there are other nice
races for him later like the Arc, the Juddmonte and the new Champion Stakes at Ascot.”
There is also a possibility of Nathaniel facing Sir Henry Cecil’s trained runner, Frankel, in one of his future events, which will be quite an interesting competition.
Although Gosden was excited with the possibility of this competition, yet he agreed that it would be difficult to match the unbeaten colt. He stated, “Their first race was together on the July Course, Frankel won it 'cosily' by half a length. Frankel is
like Black Caviar in that he can put a phenomenal sectional in, and no matter how you run he takes you off your feet.”
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