Odds-on Irish Oaks favourite Emily Upjohn switched to King George at Ascot next Saturday after plans to fly to Ireland collapsed amid travel complications
- Emily Upjohn has been ruled out of Irish Oaks on Saturday due to travel issues
- The Epsom runner-up has instead been moved to next Saturday’s King George
- She could not fly to Ireland as planned as her plane was involved in a bird strike
Emily Upjohn, who had been odds-on favourite for Saturday’s Irish Oak, has been switched to next weekend’s King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes at Ascot after plans to fly filly to Ireland unravelled.
The filly trained by John and Thady Gosden in Newmarket was supposed to fly from Stanstead on Friday morning but that was scrapped after the booked plane booked to take her was involved in a bird strike.
John Gosden said: ‘We might have been able to go on Saturday but it is a particularly long journey. You have to go via Shannon Airport because of Brexit – trying to clear horses and paperwork in Dublin is a nightmare – and it would have meant only arriving at the Curragh two or three hours before the race.
Emily Upjohn has been moved to the King George next Saturday after missing out on Irish Oaks
‘She is a young filly, who has never travelled before. It would have been asking too much of her so we will point towards the King George.’
The presence of Frankie Dettori-ridden Emily Upjohn, an unlucky second in the Oaks at Epsom, at Ascot is a massive boost for the King George after Derby winner Desert Crown was scratched on Thursday.
The Gosdens have won the King George five times. Two of those wins – Taghrooda (2014) and the first of Enable’s three wins in 2017 – came with three-year-old fillies like Emily Upjohn.
She is now 5-2 second favourite for the King George behind Irish Derby winner Westover.
The Epsom runner-up could not fly to Ireland as her booked plane was involved in a bird strike
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