There’s big Royalty-related news in England this weekend, and it has nothing to do the future king. But there is a crown to be won, as some of the best turf horses across the pond take to Royal Ascot for the running of the 2013 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, for three-year-olds and up going 1 ½ miles on the turf. The race goes this Saturday and carries a purse of one-million pounds.
Watch and wager on the possible BC Turf contender
On this side of the Atlantic, the race is significant for Pennsylvania race fans to wager on at the track or an OTB, as it’s the first of five Breeders’ Cup World Championships ‘Win and You’re In’ events to be held in the UK this summer. The winner of the King George VI will gain an automatic entry in to the Breeders’ Cup Turf race at Santa Anita on November 2, 2013. In 2009 the King George VI winner Conduit came to Santa Anita and won the BC Turf for the second time in a row.
Competitive field of Group 1 and 2 winners
The King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes is expected to draw a field of eight, with contenders including Trading Leather, winner of the 2013 Group 1 Irish Derby; Novelist, winner of the Group 1 Grand Prix de St. Cloud; Cirrus De Aigles, fifth in that same event; and Hillstar, recent winner of the Group 2 King Edward VI Stakes . Last year the filly Danedream became the first German-bred to win the race, following up on her 2011 victory in the Group 1 Arc d’Triomphe in France, the first filly to claim Europe’s two biggest races.
The Grade 2 $1.25 million Pennsylvania Derby features the two biggest names from the Triple Crown trail September 24 at Parx as a field of 12 gathers in one of the most intriguing betting races of the year.
The $1 million Cotillion Stakes September 24 at Parx features a true clash of the titans as the six-horse field is headlined by the undefeated, five-time grade 1 winner Songbird who figures to face the most stern challenge of her career.
In a completely wide open renewal of the Presque Isle Mile September 18 at Presque Isle Downs, 13 runners including the also-eligible will contest the eight furlong trip over synthetic footing.
Champion Songbird is set to make her much-anticipated return to the races in the $200,000 Summertime Oaks at Santa Anita on Saturday. The Grade 2 event will be run at a mile and a sixteenth and has attracted a field of seven.
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