29th-Jul-2023

This is a fantastic King George, exactly the type of deep King George that you want to see, with the Derby winner and Derby runner-up taking on some top-class older horses.

You can make a case for many, but I generally think that, in these top-class middle-distance all-aged races, the three-year-olds are over-rated and over-bet, because they have all the potential.  Only four three-year-olds have won the King George since Alamshar 19 years ago, and all four were special.  It takes a special type of three-year-old to win the King George.  Auguste Rodin and/or King Of Steel may well be special, but they are priced up as if they already are.

Hukum is six now, but he is in the form of his life.  He is better now as an older horse than he was at three.  When he won the Coronation Cup last year, beating Pyledriver easily, it looked like he could go on to capture a lot of the top-class middle-distance races last season.  Unfortunately, he came home lame from Epsom, he missed all of last season.

But he proved that he retained all his ability when he beat last year’s Derby winner Desert Crown in the Brigadier Gerard Stakes on his debut this season.  He was weak in the market before that race too, and he got caught in a pocket inside the two-furlong marker.  He had to switch and get out after Desert Crown, so it was to his immense credit that he was able to run him down, probably over a distance that was sharper than ideal for him. 

He will be better over this 12-furlong trip, and he should be better with that run under his belt.  And he goes well at Ascot, in three runs there, he has won a Cumberland Lodge Stakes and a King George V Stakes.  And ground just on the easy side of good should be ideal.

HUKUM WON (ADV 9/2, SP 13/2)