Adayar

Customarily, when a Ballydoyle VIP attracts the kind of support that Love (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) has in the lead-up to Saturday's G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Qipco S. at Ascot, it is more than a subtle pointer to the eventual outcome. Whether the filly who so readily dispatched of her peers in last year's G1 1000 Guineas, G1 Epsom Oaks and G1 Yorkshire Oaks has this inspiringly-crafted renewal "locked down" depends not only on the strength of the opposition but also on the volatile weather. A renowned "daisy-cutter"...

To an extent, when Coolmore wins two of the weekend's premier Classics in Europe and Godolphin wins another, it feels like we are harking back to the glory days around the turn of the century, when the battle of the superpowers was epitomised by those back-to-back duels between Galileo (Ire) and Fantastic Light in the 'King George' and Irish Champion Stakes. Honours even. And it was honours even at Epsom, with the dazzling victory of Ballydoyle's Snowfall (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) in the Cazoo Oaks, followed by the satisfying success...

EPSOM, UK—"I'm not really a person to get over-excited about things," said Adam Kirby as he stooped over the podium after winning his first Classic, the most important one of them all. For the tall, gaunt jockey, so admired by his peers but with nothing like the rock star profile of Frankie Dettori, even riding at nine stone is a struggle. Slow to face the press for the post-race conference, he admitted he'd taken his time in the weighing-room so he could have a bottle of juice while gathering his...