Our ideal contender will be a four or five-year-old arriving here off the back of a victory and drawn in double figures - three strong trends for this handicap over 1m4f for older horses. Baghdad hit all the square on the head two years ago when justifying favouritism giving Mark Johnston a fourth win in this race. Sir Michael Stoute has saddled six winners and three runners-up from his last 18 runners and the majority view was that his Kings Fete (close-up third) would have won in 2016 but for being squeezed up. Horses drawn wider in double-figure stalls have won all ten runnings since the switch of stall numbers so don’t be put off arguments suggesting the higher-drawn horses are up against it over this 1m4f trip. In fact, the 2017 1-2-4 were drawn 19, 18, 17 a year after a 1-2-3 for runners drawn 19, 13 and 15. The four-year-old, Dash Of Spice, justified 7/2 favouritism from stall 14 in 2018. Four-year-olds have historically fared best and filled seven of the first eight places in 2019 but two years earlier Rare Rhythm led home a 1-2-3 for five-year-olds following on from a 1-2-3-4 for the same age group in 2016. Prior to that, four-year-olds supplied seven of the first eight places in 2015, the first eight horses home in 2014 and six of the first seven in 2013. What isn’t a great surprise is that horses aged 6+ have struggled with just three proving successful in the last 32 years, one of those being Scarlet Dragon last year. :: Royal Ascot 2021: Get PPs, previews, analysis, recaps and more Last-time-out winners hold the call having been responsible for half the winners in the last 26 years which is an excellent return given they supply, on average, around 25% of the total runners. Given the handicap has become much more condensed of late, weight stats have started to become irrelevant in a race where it usually paid to oppose those towards the lower end of the handicap. We had a surprise 33/1 winner last season but the market leaders dominated in 2019 with the 1-2-3-4 being the quartet that headed the market. In fact, the favourite won the 2014, 2018 and 2019 runnings. Up until 2006, the Duke Of Edinburgh Stakes had been a punter’s handicap with 14 consecutive winners going the way of a contender from the front six in the betting. Especially note those hunting up the market leader, notably the second, third and fourth favourites that have won 13 of the last 27 runnings. :: Get more content like this at At The Races Positives: Drawn 10+, last-time-out winners, the second, third and fourth favourites, trained by Sir Michael Stoute or Mark Johnston.  Negatives: Aged six or older.