For lovers of Ascot's midsummer jewel, Saturday's G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes marks a welcome return to the halcyon days when it was truly the focus of the globe's best.With a cast that includes the reigning title-holder and 2025 Longines World's Best Racehorse Calandagan (Gleneagles), the Tenno Sho Autumn winner Masquerade Ball (Duramente), the Irish Derby winner Benvenuto Cellini (Frankel), the 2024 King George hero Goliath (Adlerflug) and two of the finest of the older fillies and mares in Minnie Hauk (Frankel) and Kalpana (Study Of Man), England's beloved monument of high summer has reclaimed some vital lost ground on its competition.While the handicappers will be at pains to pull together the varying threads of form and trends in such a fascinating affair, on Saturday afternoon the ultimate winner will be the race itself which had for a spell suffered for its complacency but now looks revived due to its newly-energised custodians. That Masquerade Ball and his smart compatriot Wurttemberg (Kitasan Black) are here is testament to the efforts of Ascot's officials, who are also boosting prize-money to £2.5 million next year, and of the Elite Races Scheme.Elite is certainly a word that applies to this renewal, but there is no question that it is made complete by the presence of a crack three-year-old. In the formative period after its inception in 1951, the Classic generation made a considerable mark on the race's history aided by the weight-for-age concession with the start of the 1970s representing a dramatic tide turn in their favour. Nijinsky inaugurated a glut for his age group over the decade, followed by the similarly weighty names of Mill Reef, Dahlia, Grundy, Pawneese, The Minstrel and Troy.By 1995, 10 more three-year-olds had triumphed but after Lammtarra's year the well dried and what had been a prime target for the Classic brigade for a time became almost an exclusive older-horse affair. The Derby hero Adayar's throwback win in 2021 was almost a shock given how out of kilter it was in the race's recent movement, but since then the Classic winners Westover and Auguste Rodin have been drawn in and now we have another exciting young pretender.Benvenuto Cellini may lack the aura of Ballydoyle's last three-year-old winner Galileo at present, but all the pieces of the puzzle are in place for him to produce a performance to make him competitive even in such deep company. His Irish Derby win was characterised by an element of greenness and this test might act as the catalyst from boy to man for the lookalike The Minstrel.What seems certain is that this will be a strongly-run affair, with Ballydoyle's intent clear from the entry of the half-brothers Lambourn (Australia) and Action (Frankel) as pacemakers to set it up for the certain stayers Benvenuto Cellini and Minnie Hauk. Having overdone the pace when serving it up for Goliath two years ago and underdone it 12 months ago with Jan Brueghel, the stable will have to get the calculations right at the third attempt with William Buick and Sean Levey's judgement vital to the way this plays out.Aidan O'Brien is as much in the dark as to how Benvenuto Cellini will fare against the older generation as anybody. “He did what Ryan thought he would do at The Curragh and we think he has progressed from that, so it will be interesting to see if he's good enough,” he said. “It'll be an evenly-run race again and hopefully we'll all know afterwards who is the best mile-and-a-half horse.”If all goes to plan, on this ground it will be run close to 2:26 and could even threaten Novellist's remarkable 2:24.60, so any deficiencies in stamina will be exposed. It is worth recalling that Calandagan's King George was played out in 2:29.74 off a steady pace and he only managed 2:29.11 over the same course and distance in the 2024 King Edward VII Stakes, so a genuine test of his staying power on this stiff track may be his rivals' only hope of denying a 12th French King George winner.Calandagan may have more on his plate than last year, but Francis Graffard's flagbearer has proven himself more than capable of meeting new challenges throughout his career and on this summer surface is the proverbial tough nut to crack. “His regular rider thinks he has improved from Saint-Cloud and is spot-on for the King George, which he will need to be as it looks a stronger field this year,” the operation's Nemone Routh said. “He will have to be at the top of his form, but we know he loves Ascot and always runs well there.”“He is just a top-class horse,” she added. “He has a great mind for the game. He is an intelligent horse with a very strong personality. Mickael says, 'once I ask him to quicken, he just never stops.' That is his main weapon.”A win for either Calandagan or Goliath would see Graffard make a significant personal breakthrough in joining Noel Murless and Saeed bin Suroor in winning the race for the third consecutive year and there are definite signs that Resolute Bloodstock and Philip Baron Von Ullmann's 2024 hero is coming back to his best. On the premises with Giavellotto and Kalpana despite Christophe Soumillon losing an iron in the closing stages of a strong renewal of the course-and-distance Hardwicke last month, demanding early fractions will only serve to bring him to the party.Japan has come a long way since the pioneering days of Sirius Symboli, who came here to test the waters in 1985 only to find them way too deep at that time, but on the whole the key British and French contests have remained out of reach. Masquerade Ball is charged with making the breakthrough and possibly has more scope for improvement than Calandagan from the Japan Cup, but we will only know once this is staged.Elsewhere on the Ascot card, Shadwell's unlucky Coronation Stakes runner-up Touleen (Lope De Vega) looks for compensation tackling the older fillies and mares for the first time in the G3 Longines Valiant Stakes, the unbeaten TDN Rising Star Extremely Zain (Hello Youmzain) tackles the prestigious Moet & Chandon International Handicap and 11 two-year-old fillies line up for an intriguing G3 Princess Margaret Japan Cup Stakes.York also stages it own clash of the generations and while the G2 Sky Bet York Stakes operates on a lower octave than the King George it nevertheless features a fascinating three-year-old in Juddmonte's Item (Frankel). Having dealt with Christmas Day in the Dante over this course and distance, he was bogged down like many others at Epsom and remains a colt of much intrigue. Last year's winner Royal Champion (Shamardal) is a serious yardstick despite his penalty, while Damysus (Frankel), Pride Of Arras (New Bay) and Dancing Gemini (Camelot) make this one of the strongest editions for some time.Juddmonte's Barry Mahon said of Item, “We gave him a little freshen up after Epsom and to be fair we probably knew our fate that morning when we saw the rain and knew the ground would be as bad as it was. It was very sporting of the owners to let the horse take his chance, but he didn't handle it and probably didn't see out the trip either.”“We still retain plenty of faith in him and apart from that blip at Epsom he has a perfect record,” he added. “We asked him to do something outside of his comfort zone at Epsom, but he's been good every day since. We're back in trip now and it will be interesting taking on some good older horses in the race. There's a bit more strength in depth than the Dante here, but we're hoping this will give us plenty of pointers.”This is also an opportunity for Wathnan's Damysus, who is back out in trip having failed to make a mark in the big mile contests of early summer, to get back on track and the operation's racing adviser Richard Brown said, “He showed a lot of zip when he won the Earl of Sefton, so we had a crack at a mile. He hasn't got the zip of those top milers, so we're finally back to a mile and a quarter. I think that's where his future lies. He's still lightly-raced and I think York will suit him.”The post Can Calandagan? King George Power Play Will Answer The Question appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.