Ian Ogg analyses the last 10 renewals of the Prince of Wales's Stakes and the Royal Hunt Cup from Royal Ascot on Wednesday and picks out the key statistics.
The Prince of Wales's Stakes has been won by five favourites in the past 10 years with two of those trained by Aidan O'Brien.
The master of Ballydoyle has another leading candidate in Coronation Cup winner Highland Reel but he has two serious rivals in JACK HOBBS and Ulysses.
The latter would be the lowest rated winner in the last decade with his mark of 116, 1lb lower than last year's 25/1 scorer My Dream Boat and 3lbs lower than Al Kazeem who was returned at 11/4 in 2013.
Ulysses has been well beaten in the two Group Ones he's contested to date, the Derby and the Breeders' Cup Turf (won by Highland Reel), although it's possible to make excuses for both runs.
The claims of his market rivals are stronger on the stats though and preference is for Jack Hobbs who has won half of his career starts.
* Winners have been aged four (6), five (3) and six.
* Winners have been priced between 4/5 and 16/1 with five favourites successful.
* Seven winners had won a Group One with two of the exceptions placed on their sole top level start.
* All winners had won over 10f+.
* Seven winners had won at least 50% of their career starts.
* Eight winners finished in the first three on their preceding start, with six winning.
* The nine winners with Official Ratings were rated between 117 and 125.
The Royal Hunt Cup has been relatively kind to punters of late with the last two winners returned at 8/1 and 10/1 and they have both been relatively lightly raced four-year-olds.
That generation has dominated this race although the mix between four and five-year-olds was much more even prior to those recent successes.
The last three winners have all been rated over 100 and Fastnet Tempest is on the cusp of that mark having won his last two starts and he's obviously a horse on the upgrade.
GM Hopkins was a long way behind him last time (reared at the start) but is now just 2lbs higher than when winning this race in 2015 while stablemate Remarkable ran well in the Group Three Jersey Stakes last year and has performed better than this season's form figures suggest.
Spring Cup winner Banksea has clear claims while ante-post gamble Abe Lincoln, off since being beaten in a photo in the Britannia at last year's meeting, would not be the first horse to win this on his reappearance.
However, it may be worth taking a chance with ZHUI FENG who was less than a length behind Fastnet Tempest here in May over seven furlongs but is at least three times the price of that rival.
That return to form came with the application of cheekpieces and there may now be more to come from the four-year-old who, like a number of winners in this period, has winning form to his name over 10 furlongs.
* Winners have been aged four (7), five, six and seven.
* Winners have been weighted between 8-8 and 9-5 with eight between 8-11 and 9-3.
* Winners have been rated between 93 and 105 with six 100+.
* Winners have been priced between 4/1f and 33/1 with only one favourite successful.
* Eight winners had had between nought and three starts during the current season, the exceptions ran 4 (incl Dubai) and 5 times.
* Only three winners had won a race during the current season, two on their preceding start.
* Seven winners had had between three and 16 career starts with the others racing 23, 26 and 36 times.
* Nine winners had won over a mile (the exception placed in a previous renewal), five had won over nine furlongs or further.
* All of the winners had won a handicap.
* All of the winners had won a race with at least 11 runners.
* Winners have been drawn between 4 and 33 with four breaking from 11 or lower.
