A HIGH-CLASS field of just five runners are set to go to post for one of the most eagerly-awaited King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot on Saturday.

All of the big guns stood their ground at the 48-hour declaration stage, with just Seville and Midday taken out of the Betfair-sponsored feature.

That means that Sir Michael Stoute’s Workforce will get the chance to atone for his disappointing run in the race 12 months ago.

Since then he has won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and the Brigadier Gerard Stakes but was beaten by So You Think in the Eclipse.

The Mahmood Al Zarooni-trained Rewilding got the better of So You Think in a titanic struggle in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes.

He will be ridden by Frankie Dettori, who is looking for his fifth win in the race, and will have the aid of a pacemaker in Arlington Million winner Debussy.

So You Think is trained by Aidan O’Brien and the Ballydoyle handler relies on St Nicholas Abbey, the champion juvenile of two years ago, here.

He has returned to something like his best this season and beat Midday in the Coronation Cup at Epsom.

Adding further spice to the mix is John Gosden’s Nathaniel, an impressive winner of the King Edward VII Stakes at Ascot.

He has been supplemented at a cost of £75,000 and receives 12lb as he is a three-year-old.

In a surprising move, O'Brien's son, Joseph, was declared to ride St Nicholas Abbey.

The young jockey, who claimed the Irish 2000 Guineas on Roderic O’Connor earlier this season, has only ridden one winner in Great Britain, at Ayr.

Anne-Marie O’Brien, Aidan’s wife and Joseph’s mother, tweeted: “St Nicholas Abbey is our only runner in the King George at Ascot on Saturday and Joseph will be declared to ride him.”

CHRIS WRIGHT'S NAP: Warneford (7.40pm Newmarket).