Racing Tips: Can Crystal Ocean make waves in the King George?

Saturday racing tips and preview

Glorious Goodwood may be just around the corner, but it’s the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes that take centre stage at Ascot this afternoon.

Poet’s Word, Cracksman and Crystal Ocean are all vying for favouritism ahead of the 1m 4f Group 1 contest. You can check out a runner-by-runner guide for that contest here.

Speculative punters can also enjoy three contests from York alongside the Ascot action on another packed afternoon of racing on ITV today. Check out what the Coral News Team thinks of it all below.

Crystal Ocean set to shine?

There’s a case to be made for over half the field in this year’s King George. But it’s Crystal Ocean who gets the nod from us. Sir Michael Stoute’s charge comes into this off a hat-trick of wins, most recently in the Hardwicke Stakes over course and distance. He couldn’t have looked much more like a future King George winner when landing the spoils that day.

His form is franked by last year’s St Leger, with Stradivarius, Rekindling and Coronet all going on to subsequently take top quality prizes. The four-year-old colt has to step it up again here, but the Coral News Team has every faith he’ll be able to do just that.

Elarqam back on track?

Coral ambassador Jim Crowley confessed to being uber-confident of Elarqam’s chances in his blog yesterday. And it’s easy to see why. The three-year-old still has plenty of improvement in him and can bounce back from tough runs in both the English and Irish 2,000 Guineas here.