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| Sumita Pawar |
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On Saturday at Ascot, Hukum, wearing the Shadwell silks and in the presence of team principal Sheikha Hissa, delivered an impressive performance to win the prestigious Gr.1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
The 6YO son of Sea The Stars, trained by Owen Burrows and ridden by Jim Crawley, engaged in a thrilling battle to the finish line. He narrowly defeated Westover and Rob Hornby by a head to secure his second victory at the highest level.
King Of Steel's Valiant Third-Place Finish Leaves A Trail Of Awe
King Of Steel finished in third place, trailing by an additional four-and-a-half lengths. Auguste Rodin, the winner of both the English and Irish Derby, performed below expectations and was eventually pulled up on the home stretch.
Hukum, who is the brother of Shadwell's renowned miler Baaeed, achieved his first Group 1 victory by winning the Coronation Cup in June of last year. After suffering a serious injury following that race, there were considerations of retiring him. However, he made a comeback in May and triumphed over the 2022 Derby winner, Desert Crown, in the Gr.3 Brigadier Gerard Stakes at Sandown. This led him to his latest appearance at Ascot on Saturday.
“I've always believed in him and even last year I said to Owen this could be a King George horse - he's out of his brother's shadow now,” Crawley said at the post-race television interview.
“It's a great training performance by Owen because he was off a year and in fairness to Sheikha Hissa, she persisted with him to bring him back into training. It would've been very easy to retire him as a full brother to Baaeed. She had faith and it's great, that was something special.
“Westover got first run at me but it gave me something to aim at. I had a nice position, I got onto the back of Westover turning in and I just had to hope that somebody didn't come out of the pack. In fairness to the second he didn't lie down, he kept coming back.”
Angus Gold, racing manager for Shadwell, added, "Amazing. Fantastic result, what a lovely horse he is. To come back from a serious injury, they did brilliantly at the stud to get him back and Owen has been really patient with him; fantastic.
“It means a great deal to Sheikha Hissa as you can imagine.”