Taghrooda cut to 4/1 for King George glory

Investec Oaks winner Taghrooda is 4/1 (from 8s) with Coral for the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes on Saturday, July 26th, after connections confirmed that she would line-up in the Ascot showpiece instead of the Irish Oaks at the Curragh.

The John Gosden-trained filly was ultra-impressive when beating Dermot Weld’s Tarfasha by 3 3/4 lengths at Epsom and had been odds-on to complete the classic double in Ireland on Saturday.

But owner Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum has decided to let Taghrooda take her chance against older horses and colts in the King George and rely on Tarfasha to carry his famous blue and white colours in the Irish Oaks.

Explaining the decision, Sheikh Hamdan’s racing manager Angus Gold told Press Association Sport: “Sheikh Hamdan has now decided that he would like to run Taghrooda in the King George at Ascot and therefore she will not be declared for the Irish Oaks.

“Taghrooda will be retired to stud at the end of this year and Sheikh Hamdan thought he would like to take his chance in the big one, she’s in good form and she gets plenty of weight from the older horses.”

Coral initially cut Taghrooda to 5/1 following the announcement, but that price was quickly snapped up and she is now the 4/1 third favourite behind Telescope (6/4) and Magician (3/1).

The daughter of Sea The Stars is officially rated 118, 4lb higher than Telescope but 2lb below the joint top-rated pair of Mukhadram and Trading Leather.

However, as a three-year-old filly, Taghrooda will get a hefty weight-for-age and sex allowance of 15lb from those three rivals.

That gives her outstanding claims of extending her unbeaten record to four and providing owner Sheikh hamdan with his second winner of the race following the success of Nashwan back in 1989.