A crowd of around 20,000 is expected for what Ascot's director of racing Nick Smith has described as a "generational King George."
The July 25 main event is one of the highlights of the sport's summer, and features a clash of the generations as Calandagan, officially the best horse in the world, and Japanese superstar Masquerade Ball will attempt to give 11 pounds and a beating to the Irish Derby (G1) winner Benvenuto Cellini.
Ascot announced July 20 a 25% increase to the race's prize money for 2027, making the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes (G1) Britain's richest race, and there is a feeling the race's increased purse is having the desired effect.
"The last few renewals have been good, but this one is a generational King George," Smith said. "It has the best of the Classic generation against the very best of the older horses. And in this case, the very best of Japan. This is the platform we need to promote the race as a £2.5 million race next year."
Smith expects Saturday's attendance to be similar to last year's crowd of 20,059 and added: "Ticket sales are broadly in line with last year, we're around 20,000, so we're on schedule with a few days left to go. I suspect we'll finish about the same as last year."
The on-course experience will be different for those in attendance, with the £2 million group 1 put front and center.
"We're trying to reimagine the day for the future, and that's linked to prize money," he said. "There's not a concert after racing, it's all about promoting the race. We want to promote it as the premier all-age race in the country and reestablish it in sporting terms as the midsummer European championship. We want to build back that anticipation for the race itself."
It all forms part of a concerted effort by the course to reestablish the race's position in the global calendar.
Smith added: "In the past, we've been a bit accepting of the autumn international program, the 10-furlong program and the King George's place within that. In the last two or three years, we've taken a very firm step to play our part in reestablishing the profile and prestige of the mile-and-a-half category.
"When people buy a horse, we want the ambition to be, 'I want to win the Derby, King George and Arc'. That used to be uppermost in people's minds. With all the issues, from precocious speed at the sales right up to a small pool of horses for the Cup races, something has to be done to wrestle us back to what Britain and Europe does best, and that's middle-distance horses."
Clerk of the course Chris Stickels expects Saturday's clash to take place on ground described as good to firm.
He said: "We're good to firm, we're watering, we haven't had any rain in July and we're not due any.
"We're putting down around 5 millimeters a night on the straight course since Royal Ascot. On the round course, we water every other day, so we've put on 10 to 12 millimeters at a time."
