Last year’s race Winner: Auguste Rodin Jockey: Ryan Moore Trainer: AP O'Brien Owner: M Tabor & D Smith & Mrs J Magnier & Westerberg Age: 4 Weight: 9st 2lbs Starting Price: 13/8 Season Form Figures: 02 Previous Best: 1st - Irish Champion Stakes (Group 1), Leopardstown (September 2023) By Paul Jones It used to be a case of concentrating on proven Group 1 winners but Byword, Free Eagle, My Dream Boat, Crystal Ocean, Poet’s Word, Lord North and Mosthadaf were all winning at the highest level for the first time when successful here going back to 2010. This season’s renewal is building towards being an above-average running though so it may be a case of only Group 1 winners can apply. Although we have had five recent odds-on favs beaten (So You Think, Treve, A Shin Hikari, Cracksman and Bay Bridge) in that same time frame, only one winner has started at longer odds than 10/1 since the upgrade to Group 1 status in 2000. Over a longer period of time, only five of the last 35 winners did not start in the first four in the betting. In victory last season the previous year’s Derby winner, Auguste Rodin, was giving Aidan O’Brien a fifth success following Duke Of Marmalade, So You Think (who made up for his defeat at odds of 4/11 the previous year), Highland Reel and Love. It could well be that his Tattersalls Gold Cup winner, Los Angeles, will be his big hope this season after taking the deepest running of that Group 1 at The Curragh in late May when fighting back to beat the Champion Stakes winner, Anmaat, with Kalpana and White Birch only beaten by under 2l in what looks like it could be the key piece of form. Anmaat and Kalpana were having their seasonal debuts unlike the winner and fourth who previously met in the Mooresbridge Stakes when Los Angeles, who always threatened to make into a better horse as a four-year-old given his size, also had the upper hand on White Birch. Anmaat travelled best in the Tattersalls Gold Cup from off a strong pace but maybe got to the front a little too soon and was worried out of it/outstayed by a very strong stayer at the trip. The Prince Of Wales’s Stakes is half a furlong shorter and, back at the scene of his greatest triumph when beating an unlucky-in-running Calandagan on Champions Day, connections of the runner-up will be fancying their chances of reversing half a length. Anmaat is now a 7yo so, if successful, he would be the race’s oldest winner overhauling Muhtarram and So You Think since it became a graded race in 1971. However, Owen Burrows and Shadwell have some ‘previous’ in overcoming age stats as Hukum defied the age stats to become the joint-oldest King George & Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner when aged six in 2023. Kalpana would be attempting to become the fourth filly/mare to win after Ouija Board, The Fugue and Love since the upgrade and her biggest success also came at Ascot on Champions Day. With regards to key races run during the current campaign, nothing stands out particularly with the Prix Ganay (won by Sosie beating Map Of Stars by a neck) and Tattersalls Gold Cup having fared best. However, it can often be productive to note last season’s Prince of Wales’s Stakes as six of the last 21 winners were beaten in this race 12 months ago. The French-trained pair of Zarakem and Horizon Dore filled the places last year behind Auguste Rodin. The French won three runnings between 2007-2010 but none since. Map Of Stars for the Graffard stable and Wathnan Racing will be looking to put that right this season. The 6yo Facteur Cheval could also step up in trip for the French. 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. Their unbeaten-in-four Ombudsman is their only entry. He was last seen winning a Group 3 at Longchamp for the Gosden’s in September so this would be his seasonal return if declared. Two of the last ten winners were having their first run of the season but a much higher-profile seasonal debutant is set to be the Irish Champion Stakes winner, Economics, who then a broke a blood vessel when finishing sixth as a leading contender in the Champion Stakes. That’s a bigger concern with him that lack of a run as blood was also reported in his nostril after he hacked up in the Dante last season. With regards to recent form, 18 of the last 28 winners won last time out and four winners failed to make the first three on their previous outing in the same time span. At a glance summary Positives Last-time-out winners Contested last season’s renewal Negatives Aged 6+ Unplaced last time out Likely to start bigger than 8/1Odds-on favourite