By Tom Frary
In a surprise twist to the tale of Saturday's G1 King George VI And Queen Elizabeth S. at Ascot, Aidan O'Brien ruled out the G1 Grand Prix de Paris winner Kew Gardens (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) after he scoped dirty before Thursday's confirmation stage. Ballydoyle are supervising the wellbeing of the string due to the disappointing effort of Magic Wand (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) in Saturday's G1 Irish Oaks, after which she was found to have had a dirty nose. “Our horses are just going through a little bit of a stage–a little bit of a change–and the odd one is not scoping right at the moment,” he explained. “We've seen it with the filly in the Oaks and we just have to be careful.” The removal of Kew Gardens means that Ryan Moore is on last year's G1 Qipco British Champions Fillies & Mares S. heroine Hydrangea (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and the sole 3-year-old in the line-up will be the stable's G1 Irish Derby runner-up Rostropovich (Ire) (Frankel {GB}). Sir Anthony Oppenheimer's Cracksman (GB) (Frankel {GB}) remains in the mix, with thunderstorms forecast. Robert Havlin is booked to ride if there is sufficient rain, with John Gosden telling the Racing Post, “If there is sufficient rainfall the intention is to run him.”
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