Ryan Moore rejects Harbinger in favour of Workforce in King George

Ryan Moore has chosen to ride Workforce over Harbinger when the pair meet for the first time in Ascot's King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at the end of this month. The decision, which came as little surprise, was confirmed here this morning by Sir Michael Stoute, who trains both horses, after he watched them canter up the Warren Hill Newmarket gallops together. Workforce's seven-length success in last month's Derby prompted a rare display of emotion from the champion jockey, who was hardly likely to desert the colt on his next outing. But Harbinger was an imperious winner of the Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot two weeks later and seems a potent threat to his younger rival in the race on 24 July, for which he is the 3-1 second-favourite. Connections will take time to consider the question of who will ride Harbinger, partnered by Moore in all eight starts so far. "There's no shortage of jockeys who want to ride him and I've had a few texts over the past week or so," said Harry Herbert, manager of the Highclere syndicate that owns the four-year-old. "We'll just wait and see which horses go through the next entry stage and make a decision." Herbert listed Frankie Dettori, Richard Hughes, Olivier Peslier and Kieren Fallon as being among his leading contenders and added that Peslier had contacted Stoute to offer his services. "We're in a very nice position and there'll be a top man on board." Workforce and Harbinger have been paired once before, on the Newmarket gallops last Saturday, but Stoute insisted that neither was asked to beat the other and said he had "no idea" as to which would prove better on the track. "It depends how much Workforce improves . . . or disimproves," he said. "Harbinger's progress has been very satisfactory. Will he progress further? We don't know, do we? It's gone according to plan so far." Stoute saddled the first three in last year's King George, when Conduit beat Tartan Bearer and Ask, but may have to settle for just the first two places this time. Ask, he said, will not be sent back to Ascot and might be aimed at the Irish St Leger. Harbinger was one of three Royal Ascot winners achieved last month by Herbert's Highclere operation, which has 40 horses in training, owned by a total of 300 people in various syndicates. Each of Harbinger's dozen owners stumped up £36,000 as their share of the various costs involved but the other two winners at the royal meeting were considerably cheaper; Approve and Memory each have 20 owners, who paid less than £15,000 for their shares. Both two-year-olds will seek further glory at the July meeting this week, with Memory the even-money favourite against six rivals in tomorrow's Cherry Hinton. Approve appears to have a stiffer task in Thursday's July Stakes, carrying 3lb more than the other runners, who include Elzaam, narrowly beaten in the Coventry Stakes. William Haggas, Approve's trainer, said the horse had recovered quickly from his Norfolk Stakes victory and said there was "no reason why he can't be competitive" on Thursday. "On the face of it, it looks tough, but you never know. If you're not in, you can't win. "He's genuine and the more he races, the better he is. He was staying on well at Ascot and everyone thought, possibly rightly, that it wasn't the strongest Norfolk ever, but the form's just had a bit of a boost, with Zebedee [fifth behind Approve] winning at Sandown." Highclere would have had four winners at the royal meeting if Theology had found a little extra in the final stages of the Queen's Vase, in which he was beaten a nose by Mikhail Glinka. The St Leger is the target set by his trainer, Jeremy Noseda, who will prepare him for either the Goodwood Cup or the Gordon Stakes, also at Goodwood, in the interim. "Why not the St Leger?" Noseda asked. "I look at what they're putting up in the ante-post market and he deserves his chance as much as any horse, I believe." Theology has been raised 24lb by the handicapper in light of his effort in the Queen's Vase and Noseda accepts that some will see it as a mistake to have run the horse in a level-weights race at Ascot, rather than the King George V Handicap. But he is satisfied that he made the right decision, saying Theology "wasn't mentally ready for the hurly-burly of a 20-runner handicap". "I think, in time, he'll prove that it was the right thing. I just feel that, if he'd had a tough race and got knocked about and squeezed up and bumped and bored, it might have been a really poor experience for him at that stage of his career." Noseda said that his Wokingham winner, Laddies Poker Two, would not line up at Goodwood in the Stewards' Cup, for which the grey mare had been joint-favourite. "We've done the handicap bit," he said and nominated Newbury's Hackwood Stakes, a week on Saturday, as the next target.