Royal Ascot 2024: Windsor Castle Stakes Stats Guide

Windsor Castle Stakes
Listed | Class 1 | 2YO only
Winner £62,381 - 44 entered to run

Last year’s race
Winner: Big Evs
Jockey: Jason Hart
Trainer: Michael Appleby
Owner: RP Racing Ltd
Age: 2
Weight: 9st 5lbs
Starting Price: 20/1
Season Form Figures: 2
Previous Best: 2nd - EBF Restricted Novice Stakes (Class 4), Redcar (May 2023)

By Paul Jones

Being a Listed race, the Windsor Castle Stakes is the weakest two-year-old race of the meeting from a quality perspective which contributes to why it is weak on trends. However, the last two winners were Little Big Bear who, went on to become Champion Two-Year-Old and Big Evs who later in the season added The Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint.

With up to 28 runners, the draw can be a significant factor and four of the last five winners were drawn no more than one position away from either rail (24 of 24, 20 of 20, 1 of 28, 2 of 24). Ardad also won from stall 1 in 2016.

Given its status, it is seen as an opportunity for smaller outfits to have a shot of training a Royal Ascot winner but prior to Mick Appleby landing the spoils 12 months ago, it was Aidan O’Brien that the previous running, in 2019 Ballydoyle beat Godolphin into second, the boys in blue saddled the 1-2 in 2017 and the three previous three winners emanated from the stables of Wesley Ward (who also recorded his first Royal Ascot win in this race in 2009), Aidan O’Brien and John Gosden!

The Irish don’t attack this race with great vigour and Aidan O’Brien’s Washington D C was giving them their first win since 1980 in 2015. However, O’Brien also took the 2019 and 2022 runnings and supplied last season’s runner-up as favourite. Very surprisingly, however, given his record with two-year-olds, this is a race that eluded Richard Hannon Snr during his long, distinguished career so his son will be hoping to improve on that record and has had two placed runners.

Mick Channon was successful with Great Deeds (1993), Kalindi (1999) and Holborn (2003) as well as twice filling the runner-up position so Jack Channon’s contenders in his first season should be noted and Jamie Osborne has won with Irony (2001) and Drawnfromthepast (2007).

Half of the last 18 winners started at double-figure odds; 100/1, 33/1, 22/1, 20/1 (x3), 16/1 (x2), 14/1 and 12/1 so it has also been the hardest two-year-old race of the meeting to solve and the tide has turned in a big way as far as the market being a guide is concerned as the previous 21 winners up until 2006 had started in the first six in the betting. Two of the last eight runners-up were also sent off at 100/1. Three winners since going back to 1995 were debutants.

Fillies had a belting record in the mid-late 1990s winning all five runnings between 1996-2000 but they have been poorly represented of late and it’s been the colts all the way since the turn of the century.

Also, and in total contrast to the other two-year-old races at the meeting, don’t dismiss maidens as they had won twice in the not so distant past before Southern Hills, Tactical and Big Evs got off the mark at the third and second (x2) time of asking respectively in three of the last four runnings.

Positives
Trained by Aidan O’Brien, Wesley Ward, Jack Channon or Jamie Osborne
Drawn either very high or very low
Don't be put off by big prices or overlook racecourse debutants

Negatives
Trained by Richard Hannon