Trading Leather ready for tilt at King George

Trading Leather hasn't been able to win since his landmark Irish Derby success last year but jockey Kevin Manning believes the Jim Bolger-trained star can change that in today's King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

Trading Leather is joined by his stable companion and likely pacemaker Leitir Mor, as well as Aidan O’Brien’s Magician in an attempt to become a 12th Irish-trained winner of British racing’s all-aged midsummer highlight.

With a trio of John Gosden-trained three-year-olds, including the Oaks heroine Taghrooda, this afternoon’s renewal is a hark back to the King George’s glory days as a definitive clash of the generations.

More to come

Trading Leather found only Novellist too good when he went to

Ascot

representing the classic crop last season but it’s not unknown for Irish Derby winners to rule the King George roost a year later.

Ireland's first winner, Ballymoss back in 1958, had won the Irish Derby in the previous season, a double also completed by Dylan Thomas (2007), Hurricane Run (2006) and Montjeu (2000) in recent times.

Trading Leather was runner up to Mukhadram in the Eclipse earlier this month but Manning said yesterday: “I think he will come on for the run and I think there’s a bit more.

“He is pretty versatile from a mile-and-a-quarter to a mile-and-a-half. Probably his best performance was in the Irish Derby at a mile-and-a-half, but I think it comes down to the way the race unfolds.”

The presence of Leitir Mor looks significant in that regard.

Bolger trained St Jovite to win the King George 22 years ago and added yesterday: “I am happy enough about returning to a mile-and-a-half. He does need fast ground and it looks like he will get it at Ascot.”

Magician split the star fillies The Fugue and Treve in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes and will attempt to give his trainer a fourth King George success.

A win for Telescope, however, will provide Sir Michael Stoute with a record sixth win in the race.

Classic winner

No three-year-old filly has won it since Pawneese in 1976. However the Sheikh Hamdan team, also represented by Mukhadram, are pointing to a significant 15lb weight concession from older horses as a plus-point for the unbeaten Taghrooda.

“She’s a classic winner and it’s not like a stallion we’re trying to promote,” said spokesman, Angus Gold.

“We’re going to be keeping her to breed from, so I think Sheikh Hamdan felt he’d like to be adventurous and have a go at a big one.”