28 juillet 2018
Poet’s Word (Poet’s Voice) triumphed in this year’s King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes on Saturday – which is considered to be Britain’s summer version of the Arc de Triomphe. Owned by Saeed Suhail, the winner had upstaged Cracksman (Frankel) in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot. Although the latter was a non-runner on this occasion as the ground was deemed to be too fast for his liking. In the dying strides, Poet’s Word managed to deny Crystal Ocean (Sea The Stars), who looked to have done everything right until that point. The first and second are trained by Sir Michael Stoute who was winning the race for a record sixth time. The previous five were Shergar (1981), Opera House (1993), Golan (2002), Conduit (2009) and Harbinger (2010). Opera House went on to finish third in Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, whereas Conduit ran fourth in the big Parisian prize. Can Poet’s Word do better still by emulating Enable, who completed the King George-Arc double last season?
The bookmakers have, in any case, reacted, by trimming Poet’s Word antepost odds for the ‘Arc’ to around the 8-1 mark.