Last season's race

• Winner: Fireblade
• Jockey: Suraj Narredu
• Trainer: Dylan Cunha
• Owner: Elb Bloodstock Ltd and Mr R L Banks
• Age: 4 Weight: 9st 3lbs
• Starting Price: 13/2
• Season Form Figures: 2317223
• Previous Best: 1st - Class 4 Handicap, Leicester (April 2025)

For older horses rated 0-100 just shy of 2m, a female jockey has won six of the last 11 runnings. There is no Ladies team this year, but Saffie Osborne, Marie Velon, Jamie Melham and Frida Valle Skar will are all integrated across the four teams.

Of the last 20 winners, just two were sent off at double-figure odds and favourite backers have fared particularly well collecting on seven occasions in that time frame.

Surprisingly for a staying race, as many as 13 of the last 20 winners ran as recently as within the previous fortnight, give or take a day, with 12 of those contesting races at the King George or Glorious Goodwood meetings, though only winner in the last two decades was following up a last-time-out victory.

Ian Williams has bagged a brace a winners and has also saddled the runner-up in 2018 and 2019. In fact, he trained the second and third on that latter occasion and the third and fourth home in 2023 plus the close-up third in 2024. He has six entries this time including the top weight, Cesarewitch winner and ante-post favourite, Beyerlerbeyi, who caught plenty of eyes when an unlucky, close-up fourth at the Newmarket July Meeting.

Sir Mark Prescott has trained two runners-up, and Jim Goldie has saddled a winner and two placed horses from his three runners in the last 13 years. Prescott has no entries this time, but Goldie could rely on Mountain Road.

In ten-runner contests, horses carrying big weights are far more likely to do well as it is unlikely that more than a couple of contenders at the very most will be asked to race with under 9st on their back. There have been just five contenders in the last eight runnings for example but there have been two winners and five placed horses from just eight carrying under 9st in the last 16 years, so look out for those just in case any squeeze into the race.

Horses aged nine and eight have won in 2023 and 2024, but ten of the previous 13 winners were aged four or five, as was last year's winner Fireblade.