Royal Ascot 2024: King George V Stakes Stats Guide

King George V Stakes
Heritage Handicap | Class 2 | 3YO only
Winner £56,694 - 35 entered to run

Last year’s race
Winner: Desert Hero
Jockey: Tom Marquand
Trainer: William J Haggas
Owner: HM The King & HM The Queen
Age: 3
Weight: 8st 13lbs
Starting Price: 18/1
Season Form Figures: 8
Previous Best: 8th - London Gold Cup Handicap (Class 2), Newbury (May 2023)

By Paul Jones

A handicap for three-year-olds over 1m4f, we had a royal winner last season as Desert Hero got up late on to win at 18/1 having previously finished eighth on his seasonal debut as favourite for the London Gold Cup at Newbury. Seven of the last 15 winners could be found in the top three in the betting.

He carried 8st 13lb to success and it’s not been a great race for the top weights with just three winners carrying over 9st since 2001 (one of those was when they were responsible for 16 of the 19 runners in a much more compressed handicap than usual) and when Elite Army managed that he was carrying only 1lb above that threshold.

Aidan O’Brien saddled the 1-2-3 in 2019 which was a nice way for him to break his duck in the race. However, it is the Johnston stable that leads the way with six successes, and they have also supplied six close-up placed runners, the latest being their subsequent Ascot Gold Cup winner, Subjectivist. Can Charlie Johnston carry on the good work from his father?

The Middleham-based outfit like to come at this race multiple-handed whereas Sir Michael Stoute has had far fewer runners so his record of four victories in the last 24 years including a 1-2 in 2004 so his record is arguably even more noteworthy. Godolphin owned the winner in 2014, supplied the 1-2 in 2015 and then Secret State two years ago.

Harry Charlton’s contenders also deserve a second look as Roger Charlton’s Atty Persse in 2017 added to the victory of Source Of Light in 1992 and in between three of his other six runners made the frame. Harry continued the superb run of the Charlton family in the London Gold Cup this season so will he also target this handicap that his father did so well in?

With 18 of the last 31 winners failing to win as a two-year-old, we should be looking towards the later-developing types. The 2022 winner was even unraced at two. The more lightly-raced the individual, the more interested we should be and also respect the value of a good run last time out as 32 of the last 35 winners either won or finished placed on their most recent start. Five of the last 18 winners had won a handicap at Sandown.

Eight of the last ten winners had struck earlier in the season (one of those not to being in Covid year when Royal Ascot was just two weeks into the turf season) but don’t be put off by maidens. The 66/1 winner, Cosmic Sun, 15 years ago was a maiden as was Heron Bay when scoring on his handicap debut in 2007 after three defeats in maidens whilst the 1999 winner, Elmutabaki, was beaten in four maidens before winning on his first start in a handicap.

Positives
The more lightly-raced, the better
A maiden at the start of the campaign
First three in the betting
Won a Sandown handicap
Trained by Sir Michael Stoute, Charlie Johnston, Harry Charlton or John & Thady Gosden
Owned by Godolphin

Negatives
Carrying over 9st
Finished outside the first three last time out
Failed to win earlier in the season