Tony McFadden provides an overview of the key things to note on Thursday.
Three points of interest
Charles Darwin clear on ratings in Norfolk
Charles Darwin, an impressive winner of a Navan maiden on his second start, was a long odds-on favourite against a trio of unraced rivals in a conditions race at Naas last time. However, the time he clocked suggests his three-and-a-quarter-length victory was a performance of rare merit from a juvenile at such an early stage of the season.
Charles Darwin was handed a form rating of 109p to match his timefigure, and no juvenile earned a higher rating prior to Royal Ascot this season.
Gstaad, an impressive three-length winner of the Coventry Stakes on Tuesday, is now the highest-rated two-year-old, but even he is only 2 lb higher than Charles Darwin who sets a very high standard for his rivals to aim at in the Norfolk Stakes (14:30).
Charles Darwin is 11 lb clear on Timeform's ratings and has already run to a level good enough to win most editions of the Norfolk. Sioux Nation in 2017 was the last Norfolk winner who ran to a higher level than Charles Darwin's current rating.
Trawlerman has the strongest form on offer in Gold Cup
Kyprios, one of the best stayers of the modern era, may have retired, but his trainer Aidan O'Brien is still responsible for the Gold Cup (16:20) favourite in Illinois.
Illinois' three-year-old form is working out very well - he was second behind subsequent Group 1 winners Sosie, Los Angeles and Jan Brueghel last season - and he looked better than ever when defying a penalty on his return in the Ormonde Stakes at Chester's May meeting. However, Illinois faces a rival in Thursday's Gold Cup who, by Timeform's reckoning, has stronger form claims on these terms.
Kyprios may not have been right at the top of his game in the 2023 Long Distance Cup towards the end of an injury-interrupted campaign, but it still took a very smart effort from Trawlerman to win by a neck with the pair 13 lengths clear of Sweet William in third. Trawlerman couldn't uphold the form in last year's Gold Cup but he went down fighting and again showed very smart form.
Those pieces of form are rated as marginally the best on offer but Trawlerman comes out with a 4 lb advantage over Illinois on weight-adjusted ratings as on Timeform's weight-for-age scale the four-year-olds should be in receipt of 4 lb rather than just the 1 lb they receive.
Raafedd could be well treated on handicap debut
There are a host of unexposed and potentially well-treated three-year-olds in the Britannia Stakes (17:00), including Raafedd who heads Timeform's weight-adjusted ratings on his handicap debut.
Raafedd, a 370,000 guineas yearling, was only sixth on his first couple of starts, but he showed much-improved form to get off the mark at Newbury last time, winning with much more in hand than the margin of two lengths might suggest and earning Timeform's Horse In Focus Flag to mark him out as one likely to be of interest next time.
Raafedd picked up impressively when asked to assert over a couple of furlongs out, and his rider was able to take it easy in the closing stages and gear right down.
He can be rated higher than that bare form - which is working out well given the second and third have both win since - and he still has the Timeform 'small p' to show he's likely to improve.
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