Daylami scored a runaway victory in the $1 million King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes yesterday at Ascot in England. As the second leg of the inaugural World Series Racing Championship, the Group I stakes is one of the world's premier races.

Daylami is trained by Saeed bin Suroor and owned by Godolphin Racing Inc., the international stable based in Dubai in the Middle East. That team also produced the runner-up, Nedawi. Frankie Dettori rode the winner, and Gary Stevens piloted Nedawi.

A 5-year-old winner of half his 18 races, Daylami went off at 3-1 odds and, running uphill toward the finish of the 1 1/2-mile race on turf, pulled away from his seven challengers. He stopped the timer at 2 minutes 29 1/5 seconds. Oath, the 9-4 favorite, finished seventh.

Although it failed in its first all-out attempt to win the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, Godolphin has captured this English classic 10 times in its last 13 runnings.

-- Tom Keyser

Pub Date: 7/25/99