John Gosden On The King George

I love Ascot's King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes. It has been a part of my life almost as long as I can remember.

When I was nine years old, I rode the finish of the great race on the edge of the sofa, watching it at home on television.

There was a very good reason for these rather strange indoor antics. My father, Towser Gosden, trained the winner, Aggressor, a horse owned by one of leading owners of that era, Sir Harold Wernher.

It was a great triumph as Aggressor defeated Petite Etoile, arguably the best filly seen since the days of Pretty Polly.

Aggressor's victory in the 1960 King George was my father's biggest win. The colt had been sent to the sales as a yearling because Sir Harold and his main trainer, Sir Cecil Boyd-Rochfort, were not that taken by him. But when he returned home unsold, the owner sent him to my father.

It led to bigger things, as Sir Harold later sent him Charlottown. Unfortunately, my father only trained Charlottown as a two-year-old; he was taken ill and retired from training. Charlottown, of course, went on to win the 1966 Derby.

In my 20s, I was fortunate enough to be working for Vincent O'Brien in Ireland. During my time at Ballydoyle, I was regularly accompanying The Minstrel, the 1977 Derby winner, on his trips abroad.

The Minstrel was a chestnut with four white socks, very sweaty -- all the old prejudices were in operation -- but he was also a very tough and brilliant racehorse.

One of my jobs was to stuff The Minstrel's ears with cotton wool to block out the crowd noise. It worked well when he won at Epsom, and it also worked a treat when he landed the King George. It was a great finale to his career on the racecourse. He was shipped to the United States to stand at stud soon after.

As a trainer, I have sent out two King George winners. Nathaniel (2011), who was the same vintage as Frankel incidentally, and the Oaks-winning filly Taghrooda (2014), who ran in the race very much at the request of her owner His Highness Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum.

When Nathaniel won it, he was the first three-year-old in eight years to do so. I had sensed that three-year-olds were by-passing the King George, probably because of the array of targets worldwide that are on offer at the back end of the year. Nevertheless, I believe the King George is a very good race for top three-year-olds.

This year, I am running the Derby winner Golden Horn, who is an odds-on favourite, Eagle Top, who comes here off a tough run when second in the Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot, and I also saddle Romsdal for Godolphin.

Golden Horn has had four races this year but he is thriving. He has a great attitude and he takes his races well. He has a wonderful constitution. I think he will run well again.

I have been asked whether we are going to the well too often. My answer is that I am more worried about the forecast of rain at Ascot on Saturday than any fear that we might be overfacing him.

I think he will be all right if it is 'good to soft' but we will be in unknown territory on 'soft' ground.