King’s Gambit

The London Gold Cup often produces Group horses for the future, and there is a good chance that King’s Gambit is one of them.

The maiden that he won last August at Newbury is working out well and, on his third and final run last season as a juvenile, he ran a big race to get to within a head of Bracken’s Laugh, giving him 6lb.  Bracken’s Laugh then ran well in the Group 1 Criterion de Saint-Cloud on his final run last season, and this season he has won a conditions race at Chelmsford easily, and he was a little unlucky not to win the Dee Stakes last time.

Furthermore, King’s Gambit is trained by Harry Charlton, whose dad Roger has won three of the last eight renewals of this race, and he won it in 2011 with Al Kazeem.  King’s Gambit’s three runs have all been at Newbury, there is a chance that his trainer has had this race in mind for him for a long time.

He has a remarkably similar profile to Time Test, who won the London Gold Cup in 2015 for Roger Charlton, on his three-year-old debut, after three runs at two, and racing off a handicap rating of 93, which King’s Gambit will.

Chantilly is a player and I can see Black Run running well at a decent price, but King’s Gambit is the bet.

KING’S GAMBIT WON (ADV 9/2, SP 7/2)