johnqclark

There's no doubt that Ghathanfar isn't as good as he was a couple of years ago but he has shown enough in some of his races this year that he could still be competitive off his current mark. He has ran some good races at York before so hopefully he will give a good account in this big field.

Charlie Appleby has been bringing Devoted Queen along steadily and this is just the fourth race of her career. She stepped up to Listed class at York last time and won quite impressively that day. The form has been working out well and I think she can take the step up to Group 3 in her stride.

All arrows point to Trefor in this sprint handicap. It hasn't attracted a maximum field which is a little surprising but that means there is less chance for any hard luck stories. Trefor is very much on the up and could follow up last week's very impressive win at Newmarket. York is a very different track to Newmarket but Charlie Hills knows a bit about training sprinters and must think Trefor has a good chance of defying his penalty otherwise he wouldn't have turned him out quite so quickly.

Billyjoh was well beaten in the Buckingham Palace however the winner, English Oak, is better than a handicapper so there was no disgrace in that effort. A reproduction of that run is likely to see him go close again in this very tough and competitive handicap.

Whilst it is true that Auguste Rodin has been disappointing a couple of times in his career there is absolutely no doubt he is the star on show here. He fully deserves his place at the head of the betting in the King George and on form he should really be odds on. At 6/4 he looks a nailing good bet to me.

Warm Spell showed plenty of promise as a two year old and was quite well fancied for a valuable handicap at Newmarket on seasonal debut. He proved quite difficult before the start and then completely blew his chance leaving the stalls. Connections clearly felt he would benefit by the gelding operation hence the delay in seeing him again. Assuming the op has calmed his wayward ways we may see a much better performance in this race.

Secret Mistral has put up three decent efforts at Haydock so far this season and she may well just be better than the rest in this handicap. In all likelihood she will try to make the running and could have them all in trouble by the time they enter the very short Chester straight. Her claimer has build up a good relationship with her and can steer her home to win.

Stallone is one of those sprinters who runs in and out of form , generally winning when everything falls into place. He was in quite good form in the spring before going off the boil however he ran better last time at Beverley suggesting his turn was coming again. He goes well here at Newcastle and his very astute trainer, Michael Dods, jocks up the very upwardly mobile claimer Rhys Elliott to take off a useful seven pounds.