Last year’s race

• Winner: Eternal Sunshine
• Jockey: Lauren Young
• Trainer: Jim S Goldie
• Owner: Mr James Callow & Mr J S Goldie
• Age: 5 Weight: 8st 6lbs
• Starting Price: 12/1
• Season Form Figures: 793342922011
• Previous Best: 1st - Class 3 Handicap, Thirsk (September 2025)

By Paul Jones

This unusual distance of just over 5½ furlongs means that both 5f and 6f form play a part, and horses to run well in the Portland before often return to run very big races again.

Halmahera being the most obvious example having won this race three times between 2002-2004, but he was successful in just one other race during those years and the 2015 winner, Steps, had finished second in the Portland two years earlier. The 2018 winner, A Momentofmadness, went on to finish second the following year and the 2023 second and third both contested the previous year’s running. Last season’s 1-2-3-4 were Eternal Sunshine, Apollo One, Rosario and Run Boy Run.

The best guide after the turn of the century has been the Great St Wilfrid Handicap at Ripon, which featured six Portland winners in seven years between 2002-2008 (all unplaced) but a big, fat zero since.

Ignoring the 2006 renewal when the race was switched to York, just one horse to pass the post in front had emerged from stalls 1-5 in the last 30 years.

Low numbers had struggled of late until Hurricane Ivor justified favouritism out of stall 5 in 2021 and then Call Me Ginger was promoted to first place by the stewards 12 months later after Chipstead (drawn 14) had caused interference. Four of the first five home in 2020 were drawn 14+ in the 21-runner field, Spring Loaded came out of 22 of 22 when successful in 2017 as did American Affair in 2024, A Momentofmadness won from stall 18 in 2018 and it was a 1-2-3 in 2019 for horses drawn in the higher half. Last season’s 1-2-3 were all drawn in double-digit stalls.

Going back further in time, in 2011, five of the first six home were drawn 15 or higher in a field of 21, in 2012 only two of the first 10 home were drawn in single figures, in 2013 only one horse in the first nine positions was drawn in single figures and in 2014 just one horse in the first eight was drawn in single figures.

Higher-weighted handicappers have comfortably fared best this century. Annaf won off top weight three years ago emulating Hurricane Ivor two years earlier and the second-top weight in 2024 was only beaten a nose. Last season’s top weight, Apollo One, was beaten half a length into second.

Twenty of the last 23 winners set to carry at least 8st 13lb before jockeys’ claims. A more compressed handicap these days aids that statistic as approximately twice as many horses have carried 9st+ than otherwise in the last decade but, even so, the lower-weighted horses have been under-performing as a whole.

Four and five-year-olds have won 15 of the last 18 runnings between them but do respect three-year-olds despite being 0-48 since Astonished and Compton Banker won back-to-back runnings in 1999/2000 up until Oxted won for them in 2019. Obviously, he was a special winner going on to win two Group 1s. Three-year-olds have been faring well of late as, in addition to Oxted’s victory, their two contenders in 2015 went close both hitting the frame as did Justanotherbottle in third in 2017 and Encrypted only found one too good in 2018. In fact, the Classic generation was the age range to focus on up between 1986-2000 winning on seven occasions.

Jim Goldie has won three of the last four editions, which takes some doing for a competitive handicap. David Marnane is high on punters’ lists of trainers to follow when he sends horses over for top British handicaps having won big handicaps at Ascot in addition to his two Portland successes but this is also a race that Kevin Ryan targets and, in addition to the three successes of Halmahera, he has gone close with the runner-up in 2009, 2010 and 2014. and Charlie Hills has won two of the last 13 runnings and also saddled a runner-up.

For such a competitive handicap the favourite has a pretty good record winning 10 of the last 35 runnings. That strike rate for favourites in a handicap is good going by any standards let alone a major sprint handicap featuring 22 declarations.