Horse Racing: Washington Presents Poser

There was really only one option when it was discovered a few months ago that George Washington, the star of last year's Classic generation, was suffering from fertility problems in his new career at stud. Carry on George, they said, and what with all the nudges, winks and off-color jokes when he walks into the paddock at Royal Ascot today, Carry On George is very much what it will be.

If he could understand even half of it, George Washington would toss his head and walk straight back out again. A Classic winner, after all, deserves a little more respect. But on the basis that the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about, then George Washington is also the leading player in a week that will have more than its share of character and stories. Cut through the background hum about leadless pencils and oranges without pips, and he offers us an irresistible puzzle.

It is not just about form, because the level of peak performance that George Washington brings to today's Queen Anne Stakes is well in advance of anything his opponents can muster. No, what you have to do today before deciding whether to back him or lay him at 5-4 is to clamber inside his mind - and even before his brief and largely unblessed retirement at the Coolmore stud, that was a dark and troubling place to be.

This is the horse who refused to enter the winner's enclosure after the 2,000 Guineas last year and often seemed to be bottling up a mixture of anger and arrogance that could blow at any moment. Since then, he has had a taste of the good life, so quite how he reacts if and when he realizes that he is back to the grind of running very fast and being hit with a stick could well be the key to the race.

It may sound anthropomorphic to put it in these terms but, while horses clearly cannot think in such a way, that is not the same thing as not thinking at all. One thing that most punters come to appreciate over time, in fact, is that they are not nearly as dumb as they look.

"Stallions in other disciplines have no problem with it," Andrew McGonnell, a vet who specializes in stud medicine, said yesterday. "In eventing and dressage, they can cover mares and also go out and compete. They have a routine and they know that the two things are separate. He might just have a bit of the top-heavy stallion look about him but I'm sure Aidan O'Brien will have got rid of most of that and have him looking really good.

"George Washington was a quirky horse at the best of times last year and if there were fillies in the race that were in season, then he might be a bit more attuned to that now, having covered mares already. But if they look after him properly he should be absolutely fine and he might have settled down more with age now anyway, irrespective of whether he's been covering mares. And on his day, he's an untouchable talent."

It is a description that could apply equally to O'Brien, the man charged with reintroducing the colt to the rigors of training. There are those who suggest that anyone with O'Brien's annual intake of high-class bloodstock would - or should - be a success, but O'Brien is much, much more than a man who sends horses up the gallops in the morning. Very few people are blessed with his instinctive understanding of thoroughbreds and a horse like this one is the perfect advertisement for O'Brien's quiet genius.

Victory for George Washington today, in fact, might well be the finest achievement of O'Brien's career to date. It could also persuade the world's most influential breeders that he might be worth one more chance next year, which would be a multi-million pound result for Coolmore. And if someone can persuade Barbara Windsor to hand over the prizes afterwards, well, then so much the better.