George on track for Goodwood

George Washington has come through his latest workout with all guns blazing and will travel to Goodwood on Sunday for the totesport Celebration Mile, where he will be ridden by Mick Kinane.

The Stan James 2000 Guineas hero has been off the track since pulling a muscle in his hip in the Irish equivalent but is ready to return to the track ahead of a crack at next month’s Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot.

“The plan is run as he worked this morning and it all went very well,” trainer Aidan O’Brien said yesterday.

“We just want to get him back on the track and hopefully Mick will be coming over to ride him.”

O’Brien blamed a lack of match practice and the soft ground at York for the reverse of Dylan Thomas in the Juddmonte International on Tuesday.

“I gave him a break after the Irish Derby and he ran very fresh,” O’Brien said.

“He is a horse with a huge cruising speed but he just didn’t settle as they went so slow.

“He is a very good moving horse and he needs to be bouncing off the ground.”