Disclaimer: Compulsive gambling can harm your health and relationships, and leave you in serious debt. If you have a problem with gambling and you’d like to stop, support and treatment is available. To find information, support and counselling on gambling addiction, please visit the NHS website: www.bit.ly/NHSGambling

DOWN through the years, the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes was always viewed as the crowning glory of the middle distance all-aged season, but as the Arc has grown in importance over the last 25 years, the King George has diminished in status. The key to its revival may well lie in the number of quality three-year-olds lining up.

This year we have both the Oaks’ runner-up and Irish Derby winner in attendance, and hopefully that will be a forerunner to future renewals. Had he not suffered a setback, then Epsom Derby hero Desert Crown would also have taken his place.

With only six set to contest this year’s prize there is a distinct lack of early pace, and with Westover being arguably the strongest stayer in the line up, it is hard to understand why connections are not going to employ a pacemaker for him.