THE truth is that when jockeys get plaudits for stealing races from the front there is usually a degree to which at least some of their rivals were guilty of allowing it to happen. That was the case with James McDonald’s daylight heist on Big Orange in the Princess of Wales’s Stakes at Newmarket recently.

That may also have been true of Ryan Moore’s masterclass on Highland Reel in Saturday’s King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot, but to a lesser degree.

It certainly looked the case that Moore and Highland Reel went steadily. But, crucially, sectionals show that they did not go slowly. If they had, then one of their rivals would surely have taken them on.

Highland Reel upped the pace on a couple of occasions, and seemed to get a breather on another, so that he had not been challenged, never mind headed, by the time the home straight came. Yet, he had enough in reserve to increase the pace again.

Wings of Desire and Dartmouth went after Highland Reel from that point but were almost exactly the same margin behind him at the line as they had been turning in. Highland Reel might have been the best horse in the race anyway – that would be my interpretation – but he was given every chance by Moore’s guile in going just fast enough to get the others off his case, and yet not fast enough to compromise his chance.

NO FARCE

That the King George VI was no farce of a race in terms of pace is reflected by the overall time, which was over 3.0s quicker than the later handicap (about what would be expected given the winners’ respective abilities) and equivalent to a timefigure of 114.

That figure is not top drawer – Highland Reel should be capable of running into the 120s – but it was actually the fastest of the week in Britain and Ireland. Moore has come in for some criticism in this column but undoubtedly deserves a bouquet not a brickbat in this instance.

Truth be told, it was not a strong renewal of this famous race, and Postponed would probably have beaten this lot pretty comfortably had he not been scratched due to a poor blood test. But it was not exceptionally weak either.

In that context, the effort of Wings of Desire (109 timefigure) in second was pretty encouraging for the classic crop: he had run a 115 figure in winning the Dante from subsequent Grade 1 winner Deauville yet had been put in his place by Harzand, US Army Ranger and Idaho in The Derby at Epsom in between.