Royal Ascot 2025: (Group 2) King Edward VII Stakes Stats Guide

Last year’s race
Winner: Calandagan
Jockey: Stephane Pasquier
Trainer: Francis-Henri Graffard
Owner: H H Aga Khan
Age: 3
Weight: 9st 2lbs
Starting Price: 11/2
Season Form Figures: 211
Previous Best: 1st - Prix Hocquart (Group 3), ParisLongchamp (May 2024)

By Paul Jones

The King Edward VII Stakes (Group 2) has long been a punter-friendly race, with 20 of the last 31 winners starting either favourite or second favourite, aided by just two double-figure fields in the last 13 years.

Not so Calandagan last season though, who despite being the third-favourite ran out the most impressive winner of the meeting to give the French their first King Edward VII winner, streaking clear to win by six lengths at the line. Being a gelding, he was ineligible for the Classics, so the plan was hatched to win at Royal Ascot instead after a couple of Group 3 wins at ParisLongchamp.

Calandagan has since proven himself to be a proper Group 1 performer, and you certainly can’t knock the race’s recent roll of honour, with five of the previous six winners going on to win a Group 1. In fact, the 2023 1-2 went on to win the Champion Stakes (King Of Steel) and St Leger (Continuous) later that season.

In addition, two other fairly recent winners went on to win the Dubai World Cup (Monterosso) and King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes (Nathaniel), while the 2014 runner-up later won a Cox Plate (Adelaide), so the race often referred to as the "Ascot Derby" has been a big guide to the very biggest races on the planet in recent years.

Also note that as many as 11 of the last 31 subsequent St Leger winners had previously run with credit here, so stamina genes count for plenty.

Following the retirement of Sir Michael Stoute, who had six wins to his name (three short of Sir John Porter), the Johnston and Gosden stables have the best record of current licence holders with three wins apiece.

The Irish, however, have only mustered three wins in the last 49 years (all three trained by Aidan O’Brien), and one of those was in a very poor five-runner renewal. O’Brien’s Derby runners have had mixed fortunes to date. Japan hacked up in 2019 after going close at Epsom, but Ballydoyle have been responsible for six of the last 11 losing favourites (four of which started at no bigger than 6/5) - two of which ran big races in the Derby beforehand - while his At First Sight could only manage fifth when favourite in 2010 after finishing second in the Derby. Changingoftheguard did justify 11/10 favouritism for the stable in 2022 after claiming fifth at Epsom, though fellow Derby runner Grand Alliance really did throw that race away after hanging badly left late on, eventually only beaten a short-head.

Nine winners since 1989 previously ran in the Derby, so no real steer one way or the other there. One of those was Foyer, who unseated Willie Ryan at Epsom (6f out).

Of the last 29 winners, all but six were winning a Group race for the first time, while of the last 30 winners, only nine had failed to visit the winners' enclosure earlier in the season. Seventeen of those winners had previously contested a recognised Derby trial.

As with the Ribblesdale Stakes (the fillies' equivalent of this race at Royal Ascot), proven two-year-old form counts for little. In fact, the 2014 winner Eagle Top was given his racecourse debut just nine weeks before landing this prize, while the 2015 winner Balios ran only once as a two-year-old and just once beforehand during his three-year-old campaign.

So, this has proven to very much be a race for unexposed horses likely to show their true potential tackling this distance for the first time, with 25 of the last 29 winners having never won over 1m4f previously, meaning the majority were unexposed at this trip.

At a glance summary

Positives
The favourite or second-favourite
Contested a recognised Derby trial
Yet to win over 1m4f+Yet to win a Group race

Negatives
Non Aidan O’Brien-trained Irish contenders
Yet to win this season