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Colm O’Donoghue has come in for the plum ride on Cape Blanco in the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot on Saturday.

The mount on the Aidan O’Brien-trained Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby winner became available when regular rider Johnny Murtagh picked up a six-day suspension at Newmarket’s July meeting.

Like Seamie Heffernan, O’Donoghue is a regular partner of second and third strings for O’Brien in the big races, and hit the Group One target last season on the stable’s Jan Vermeer in the Criterium International at Saint-Cloud.

Impressive in the Dante Stakes at York when beating subsequent runaway Epsom Derby hero Workforce, Cape Blanco disappointed in the French Derby before bouncing back at the Curragh.

The pair face a rematch at the weekend, with Workforce the evens favourite and Cape Blanco available at 13-2 in a place.

Stablemates Workforce and Harbinger feature among eight possible runners in a mouth-watering renewal of the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes on Saturday.

Workforce was a hugely impressive winner of the Investec Derby at Epsom on his latest appearance and bids to become the first three-year-old since Alamshar in 2003 to win Ascot’s mid-summer showpiece.

Fellow Sir Michael Stoute inmate Harbinger arrives on the back of a runaway success in the Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot and will be ridden by Olivier Peslier, with stable jockey Ryan Moore siding with the Epsom hero.

Stoute trained Conduit, Tartan Bearer and Ask to a one-two-three in the race 12 months ago and is an outside bet to repeat the feat having also left in Confront, although he is likely to take up a pacemaking role.

Aidan O’Brien has saddled Galileo (2001), Dylan Thomas (2007) and Duke Of Marmalade (2008) to King George success and his main candidate this time would appear to be Irish Derby winner Cape Blanco.

Epsom runner-up At First Sight could join him on the trip from Ballydoyle for the Betfair-sponsored event.

John Gosden’s three-time Group One winner Dar Re Mi will bid to become the first filly or mare to win the race since Time Charter in 1983, a statistic which also faces French raider Daryakana. Youmzain completes the field as he continues to search for first British Group One win.

Daryakana, unraced at two, was unbeaten in five starts last year and although she has failed to strike in two starts since the turn of the year, her trainer Alain de Royer-Dupre feels she is now in peak condition.

He said: “It is going to be a very good race but the filly is going well. This will be her third run of the year and she is perfect. I think she will improve through the year. She didn’t have a good race at Saint-Cloud last time as there was no pace and it was not easy for her.”

Mawatheeq has been ruled out of the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes on Saturday.

The five-year-old has endured an interrupted campaign having been forced to miss the Dubai World Cup through injury and he was well beaten on his sole appearance of 2010 in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot.

He was withdrawn at the start of the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown after failing to enter the stalls and trainer Marcus Tregoning does not feel his charge is ready to compete in Ascot’s Betfair-sponsored summer showpiece.

“We were going to work him somewhere this weekend but we decided against it and that means he will miss the King George,” said Tregoning.

“We’ve just decided to give him a bit more time as we don’t feel he’s going to be ready for Ascot.

“We haven’t decided where we’re going with him yet but we just feel he wants a bit more time after the injury problem he had in the spring.”

An announcement on who rides Harbinger in the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes could be made this week.

Speculation has been rife on who will team up with the in-form Sir Michael Stoute-trained four-year-old in the Betfair-sponsored showpiece at Ascot on July 24.

Frankie Dettori and Paul Hanagan are among the names being linked with Harbinger after his regular partner Ryan Moore decided to stick with stablemate Workforce following their triumph in the Investec Derby.

Harbinger is unbeaten in three starts this term, culminating in the Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot.

“We’re still waiting to hear on jockey booking confirmations and all that,” said Harry Herbert, racing manager to owners Highclere Thoroughbred Racing.

“It doesn’t look as though there will be too big a field in the race so it’s just a question of seeing who is doing what, and we are in Sir Michael’s hands on that one.

“He’s just waiting to hear. We have had conversations, but I can’t talk about that until we’ve had confirmation.

“I guess it wouldn’t take a genius to know what the short-list would be. It’s just waiting for the cards to fall and for trainers with other runners in the race knowing what they are going to do. Hopefully, something will be forthcoming this week.”

He went on: “He’s such a special horse, he’s such a beautiful-looking horse with a great temperament. We’ve seen this year he has a lovely cruising speed and then a tremendous turn of foot to quicken off that pace.

“This is what it’s all about from my side of things. It’s a big syndicate manager’s dream to have a horse like Harbinger, who will hopefully be lining up for Europe’s greatest midsummer spectacle.”

Harbinger has been given the green light to lock horns with Derby-winning stablemate Workforce in next month’s King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

Sir Michael Stoute’s colt, owned by Highclere Thoroughbred Racing, turned in a hugely impressive display in last weekend’s Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot and will now return to the Berkshire track for his first Group One assignment on July 24.

Speaking on www.highclere.co.uk, Stoute said: “He has come out of last week’s race in good form and cantered (on Thursday morning). He deserves to take his chance and, as we saw on Saturday, he was well-suited to Ascot’s galloping track.”

Highclere’s racing manager Harry Herbert added: “We are all thrilled that Sir Michael is keen to run Harbinger in the King George and what a race it promises to be, especially taking on such an impressive Derby winner in Workforce.

“This will be Highclere’s first runner in the race and all of our owners could not be more excited at the prospect.”

Sir Michael Stoute is refusing to rush into making a plan for record-breaking Derby winner Workforce.

On only his third start, the King’s Best colt broke Lammtarra’s 15-year-old track record for the Classic on a sweltering day at Epsom.

The Irish Derby at the Curragh and the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot are the likely options for his next start, but five-time Derby winning handler Stoute says no decision will be made until next week at the earliest.

“It was a great day, a great thrill and the team thoroughly enjoyed it,” said Stoute.

“I was a little bit concerned about his lack of experience after his preparatory race didn’t go according to plan, but he’d pleased us subsequently and we thought he would run very well but I didn’t expect a performance of that magnitude.

“Ryan (Moore) came in after York and said ‘don’t be disappointed’ because the bit went right through his mouth and he couldn’t give him the assistance that he needed.

“I suppose on the face of it it was a better Derby performance than Sea The Stars, but it doesn’t make him a better horse and Sea The Stars actually won the Derby very comfortably.

“All my Derby winners stand out, it’s a wonderful race and it’s a wonderful day and it’s great to win it.

“We’ve decided to not even consider the next move until well into next week, we’ll monitor him and try to determine how he has recovered from his race so plans are on hold.

“It’s so far so good but it is early days,” he told At The Races.