The curious case of the unfashionable midsummer championship

Fashion can be perplexing – who can explain the top knot, for example, or why the kids are all wearing leather shoes without socks? – and racing fashion is no different, with races and riders going off- and on-trend with the passing of the seasons, often for little discernible reason.

Next weekend's feature race, the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, was once the midsummer championship of Europe but is now a race that has lost some of its once mighty lustre. It is the racing equivalent of the bootcut jean: tried, trusty, but long since shifted from the spotlight by trendier fashions, such as the skinny jeans of midsummer, the Sussex Stakes, which despite falling four days after the King George is now hyped up long before it.

In lineage, the King George – first staged in 1951 – can be matched by few races. It has been won by Nijinsky, Mill Reef and Brigadier Gerard; Dancing Brave, Montjeu and Galileo. In 1975 it served up the 'race of the century', when Derby winner Grundy held off the relentless Bustino in a blood-and-thunder duel down the Ascot straight. It has long been regarded as the jewel in Ascot's opulent crown.