Torquator Tasso poised for King George, ground permitting

Arc hero was back to winning ways at the weekend.

Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe hero Torquator Tasso could head for Ascot next after returning to form at Hamburg at the weekend.

The chestnut, who is trained in Germany by Marcel Weiss, was a shock winner of the prestigious ParisLongchamp contest last season when prevailing by three-quarters of a length as a rank outsider among the field of 14.

The performance signalled the end of the horse’s 2021 campaign, and he returned to action at Baden-Baden in May when contesting and eventually finishing sixth in the Group Two Grosser Preis der Badischen Wirtschaft.

At Hamburg on Saturday the five-year-old was back at the mile-and-a-half trip he seems most effective over and produced a neat three-and-half-length victory under regular rider Rene Piechulek.

The success could now pave the way to the King George And Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot on July 23, although some give in the ground would be preferred if a tilt at the Group One event is to come to fruition.

Following Ascot – for which he is as short as 6-1 with Paddy Power and Betfair – a run on home turf is pencilled in at Baden-Baden, after which connections hope a repeat Arc bid is on the cards for the returning champion.

“We were very happy with that, he is back to his form and we were very pleased with him,” part-owner Peter-Michael Endres told the PA news agency.

“It (a mile and a half) is the best trip and it suits him.

“If the surface is OK we will go next to Ascot, the King George And Queen Elizabeth, if there was a little bit of rain in England that would be nice for us.

“If he is OK, the horse, we will go from Ascot to Baden-Baden and then back to the Arc.”

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