American Affair wins King George; Breeders' Cup is possible

Jim Goldie’s American Affair (12/1) prevailed in a thrilling Group 2 King George Stakes that saw the first four home spread right across the track in the closing stages at Goodwood.

With the field having split into two, American Affair raced prominently on the stands side under Paul Mulrennan, while Asfoora was handily placed on the far side in a group that included Rumstar and Time For Sandals.

The quartet all worked their way into challenging positions entering the final furlong, and it was American Affair who found most to score by half a length from Rumstar (6/1). Time For Sandals (14/1) was a neck behind in third, with the same distance to Asfoora (14/1) in fourth.

This was American Affair’s first success since the 2025 King Charles III Stakes (G1) at Royal Ascot, after which an injury forced him to miss the rest of the campaign.

“I thought I had won, but you never want to be too confident,” Mulrennan said. “Then Jason Hart was beside me and he was saying, ‘Well done, Paul’, so I was looking down at my number. What a horse American Affair has been.

“I was looking at this race and, on paper, it looked like there was going to be loads of pace. Within three strides, I winged the gates and I was there. I thought, ‘I have got him in a nice comfort zone now.’ He was happy.

“He probably would have beaten Battaash’s time, but I dropped my whip. On his day, he is very fast and this race has always been at the back of our minds because it is such a fast track. We have York now.

“He is another year stronger. He has had all that time off. There have been reasons why he has run bad this year, but he has done everything right today, so touch wood, he comes back from this good. We will enjoy today, but we have the Nunthorpe and possibly America would be nice.”

The Nunthorpe (G1) at York on Aug. 21 is an automatic qualifier for the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint, as is the Flying Five (G1) at the Curraugh on Sept. 13.

George Goldie, the trainer’s son, said: “We were pleased with his previous run at York, when he was running into a headwind from a bad draw. So we came here hopeful that today would suit him better. The plan is now to go for the Nunthorpe and then either the Curragh or maybe step up to six furlongs for the Haydock Sprint Cup.”