Royal Ascot 2024: Prince Of Wales's Stakes Stats Guide

Prince Of Wales's Stakes
Group 1 | British Champions Series | Class 1 | 4YO plus
Winner £567,100 - 13 entered to run

Last year’s race
Winner: Mostahdaf
Jockey: Jim Crowley
Trainer: John & Thady Gosden
Owner: Shadwell Estate Company Ltd
Age: 5
Weight: 9st 2lbs
Starting Price: 10/1
Season Form Figures: 14
Previous Best: 1st - Neom Turf Cup (Group 3), Riyadh (February 2023)

By Paul Jones

It used to be a case of concentrating on proven Group 1 winners but Byword, Free Eagle, My Dream Boat, Poet’s Word, Crystal Ocean, Lord North and Mosthadaf, after causing a mini-surprise last year, were all winning at the highest level for the first time when successful here going back to 2010.

However, despite having had five odds-on favourites beaten (So You Think, Treve, A Shin Hikari, Cracksman and Bay Bridge) in that same timeframe, only one winner has started at longer odds than 10/1 since the upgrade to Group 1 status back in 2000. Over a longer period of time, only five of the last 35 winners didn’t feature in the first four in the betting.

Love was a winning 11/10 favourite three years ago (as part of a 1-2 for mares when beating Audarya), joining Ouija Board and The Fugue as successful mares since the upgrade. Inspiral won on her only attempt at this trip at The Breeders’ Cup, and so she has this option as well as the Queen Anne over a mile. Blue Rose Cen is another multiple Group 1 winner that could represent the mares.

In victory, Love was giving Aidan O’Brien a fourth success in the race following Duke Of Marmalade, So You Think (who made up for his defeat at odds of 4/11 the previous year) and Highland Reel. She was also winning on her seasonal debut, as was Free Eagle six years earlier.

With regards to recent form, 18 of the last 27 winners won last time out, while four winners failed to make the first three on their previous outing in the same time span.

It can often be productive to note last season’s Prince of Wales’s Stakes, as six of the last 20 winners were beaten in this race 12 months prior. Luxembourg was sent off 2/1 favourite last season before finishing a 4-length second.

With regards to key races run during the current campaign, nothing particularly stands out, though the Prix Ganay and Tattersalls Gold Cup, won last month by White Birch after beating Auguste Rodin into second to reverse placings from last year’s Derby, have fared best. That pair from the Curragh could well cross swords again here.

The French won three runnings between 2007-2010 but none since, and they were responsible for five of this year’s original 27 entries, including the second and fifth in a blanket finish to the Prix Ganay in Zarir (on his first start in Group company) and Horizon Dore. The latter has since been beaten a short-head in the Group 1 Prix d’Ispahan.

Godolphin used to run their best 1m2f horse in this race but following three wins on the spin between 2000-2002 they have struggled, with just one success since with Rewilding.

Sir Michael Stoute won the Prince of Wales’s Stakes with Stagecraft (1991) under Steve Cauthen, so it was a long wait until Poets Word took down the well-fancied Cracksman six years ago before Crystal Ocean made it back-to-back successes. His four-year-old Passenger has been ante-post favourite since making a winning return in the Huxley Stakes at Chester last month.

Since Muhtarram won back-to-back runnings in 1995, only So You Think has won for horses aged older than five. Former winner, and now eight-year-old, Lord North is the only entry aged older than six, with Dubai Honour the sole six-year-old in the line-up.

Positives
Last-time-out winners
Contested last season’s renewal

Negatives
Yet to win a Group/Grade 1
Aged 6+
Unplaced last time out
Likely to start bigger than 8/1
Odds-on favourite