Ladbrokes Ormonde Stakes Stats Guide

By Paul Jones

Named in honour of the undefeated 1886 Triple Crown winner (plus the Dewhurst, St James’s Palace Stakes, Champion Stakes and Hardwicke Stakes - twice - amongst other successes), the Ormonde Stakes is a Group 3 run over an extended 1m5f, which was first run in 1936.

True, small-ish fields are usually the order of the day, but don’t go looking for an upset as since the Venetia Williams-trained Stretarez caused a 25/1 surprise in 1998, 25 of the subsequent 27 winners started in the first two in the betting, with only Clever Cookie (8/1 in 2015) being the exception, and he was the lowest-rated winner in recent years being officially rated just 106 before his success. It usually doesn’t pay to look beyond an official rating of 110 in the Ormonde.

Between 1980-2001 it was four-year-olds all the way winning on 15 occasions, but it has been shared around more evenly since then including even a 10-year-old winner in The Whistling Teal. Hamish won it aged six and seven and, now a 10-year-old, could bid to try and win a third Ormonde. When successful three years ago, he became the fourth dual-winner in the race’s long history and a third in the last 21 runnings.

Last season’s winner Illinois could again start favourite for Aidan O’Brien in his bid to become another dual-winner of the race, and his trainer’s eighth in total, with stablemate Jan Brueghel another possibility.

Whereas we have had six winners carry a 3lb penalty in the last 18 runnings, having won another Group 3 contest since the end of August the previous year, winners under a 5lb penalty for a Group 2 success or a 7lb penalty for a win at the highest level have been far harder to come by. Illinois managed that last season by overcoming his 5lb penalty, which he doesn’t have this time around, so he will actually be receiving 5lb from Sons And Lovers and 3lb from Al Qareem. Also unpenalised, if he runs (unlikely), is Lambourn, as his Derby and Irish Derby Group 1 victories came before July.

Crow won the Ormonde two years after his St Leger success in 1978, but since then only Teenoso has won a Classic (1983 Derby) beforehand, though Oscar Schindler went on to win two Irish St Legers.

As for the home defence, Andrew Balding has a good record over these three days and has Mount Atlas entered, who would be bidding to give his trainer a third win in the race.

In the last 18 years the scoreline is 11-7 in favour of seasonal debutants (only two of the seven to have run earlier in the season had won), so no real angle there, though none of those had run twice earlier in the campaign. Five of the last 23 winners ran in the John Porter at Newbury as did Teenoso who was beaten there under a penalty on his seasonal return before he won this prize, the Grand Prix de Saint Cloud and King George in successive races during 1984.

The draw hasn’t been a significant factor, but 15 of the last 18 winners had already won a Group race earlier in their career, while five had won at Chester before.