Royal Ascot 2022: King's Stand Stakes Stats Guide

Last year’s race

Winner: Oxted
Jockey: Cieren Fallon
Trainer: R A Teal
Owner: S Piper, T Hirschfeld, D Fish & J Collin
Age: 5 Weight: 9st 5lbs
Starting Price: 4/1
Season Form Figures: 723
Previous Best: 1st - Darley July Cup (Group 1), Newmarket (July 2020)

By Paul Jones

We have a serious international flavour to this season’s King’s Stand with sprinting superstars from Australia (Nature Strip) and America (Golden Pal) on target to contest the race and they should dominate the betting.

Oxted is injured so won’t be able to defend his title. British-trained horses have won five of the last seven runnings having previously been up against it since the sprinting scene became more global. There were international successes in 2013, 2014 (both Sole Power) and 2017 (Lady Aurelia) after we had four Australian-trained winners since 2003, a success for France in 2005 (and twice more in the previous eight years), Hong Kong in 2012 and even a Spanish-trained winner in 2008.

The Australian challenge has gone quiet in recent years in terms of quantity and real quality but in Nature Strip they are sending over their best sprinter to Royal Ascot since Black Caviar having won eight Grade 1s and also the most valuable sprint prize in the world in The Everest. Back in February he only was beaten a short-head in attempting to win back-to-back runnings of the Lightning Stakes at Flemington, a race won by all four Aussie winners of the King’s Stand earlier in the year; Choisir, Takeover Target, Miss Andretti and Scenic Blast.

Lady Aurelia gave the Americans success in the King’s Stand five years ago for Wesley Ward who rates Golden Pal as the best horse that he has trained and his four-year-old is ante-post favourite after winning last season’s Breeders’ Cup Dirt Sprint. He is, however, 0-2 in Britain having finished second in the Norfolk Stakes and only seventh when well fancied for last season’s Nunthorpe behind Winter Power.

Tim Easterby’s filly returned to action in the Temple Stakes which has been the best guide with six winners since 1990 one ahead of the Prix du Gros-Chene with five winners in the last 26 years. Her weakness in the market at Haydock indicated that she would likely need the run and she finished unplaced behind Kings Lynn who saw off Twilight Calls. Is Ascot too stiff a 5f for Winter Power?

She is certainly worth another chance her having helped to set an over-fast gallop in last season’s race that set it up for horses racing well off the pace and fillies/mares have a decent strike rate winning six of the last 28 runnings given how outnumbered they are.

Age is not a critical factor with recent winners aged from three right through to seven in the last seven years but, over a longer period of time, three-year-olds have a decent strike rate winning, on average, twice a decade which may not sound exciting but they are always heavily outnumbered so do afford them respect. However, the Commonwealth Cup restricted to the Classic generation is likely to take some contenders away from the King’s Stand.

As you would expect for a competitive Group 1 sprint, pattern-race winners have come to the fore with 24 of the last 33 winners having already won at Group 1 or Group 2 level so no massive angle there. All but three of the last 22 winners had also won a Group race over the minimum trip of five furlongs (also to be expected) and all bar two of those last 20 winners had enjoyed the benefit of a run earlier in the season (still nothing to get particularly excited about).

Twelve of the last 22 winners were also successful on their most recent outing, in fact, 13 of the last 17 winners finished first or second last time out. The Prix de l’Abbaye winner, A Case Of You, warmed up for Royal Ascot by finishing third to Brad The Brief in the Greenlands Stakes under a penalty. At a glance summary

POSITIVES
Last-time-out winnerTrained in Australia
Contested the Temple Stakes
A top-four finisher in the Prix du Gros-Chene
Three-year-oldsFillies/mares

NEGATIVES
Outside the first two last time out
Failed to win a Group 1 or Group 2 race
Failed to win a Group race over 5f