Royal Ascot 2025: Sandringham Stakes Stats Guide

Last year’s race
Winner: Soprano
Jockey: Billy Loughnane
Trainer: George Boughey
Owner: Highclere Thoroughbred Racing - Da Vinci
Age: 3
Weight: 9st 5lbs
Starting Price: 14/1
Season Form Figures: 53
Previous Best: 2nd - Albany Stakes (Group 3), Royal Ascot (June 2023)

By Paul Jones

For the eighth year the Sandringham will be run as a standard handicap featuring around 30 runners rather than a Listed handicap so to all intents and purposes, it is basically now the fillies’ Britannia Stakes for three-year-olds. All bar one of the last 13 winners had run no more than twice earlier in the season.

A race that suits later developers, 14 winners since 1995 started the season as a maiden. Agrotera became the first last-time-out maiden winner since 2000 when she justified favouritism seven years ago and we should still very much look to last-time-out winners as they have supplied the winner on 17 occasions in the last 30 runnings.

Charlie Fellowes and the recently-retired Hayley Turner have combined to win two of the last six runnings with a 33/1 outsider both times. The Gosden stable have also recorded a brace of successes in the last nine years and Richard Hannon is another handler that has won a couple of runnings in the last decade (both were well fancied). Also note Michael Bell or Ed Dunlop given that they have also both won this race twice, though over a longer period of time.

The Irish have won on three occasions going back to 2005 including a 1-2 in 2021.

With only six of the last 30 winners not being sent off in the front half-dozen in the market, it has been one of the better handicaps at the meeting for punters. Twenty-one of those had visited the Winners’ Enclosure at some point earlier in the campaign and one of those not to score earlier in the campaign was having her seasonal debut.

The Classic trials of the Nell Gwyn and Pretty Polly have been worth noting. Five fairly recent winners ran in the 1000 Guineas trial including Osaila who completed the Nell Gwyn-Sandringham double in 2015. Two recent Sandringham winners were also placed in the Oaks trial so were dropping back in distance.

Jamie Spencer has ridden the winner on four occasions going back to 2006 underlining the view held by many that he is the best exponent of how to ride a hold-up horse in big handicaps on the straight course at Ascot. However, he trails Frankie Dettori by three winners having won it eight times, which is some going for a big-field handicap.

Five of the last 13 winners emerged from stalls 1-5 but, more interestingly, eight of the last 14 winners were drawn no more than four positions away from either rail.

At a glance summary

Positives
Last-time out winner
Trained by Charlie Fellowes, Richard Hannon, John & Thady Gosden, Ed Dunlop or Michael Bell
First six in the market
Drawn in the lowest or highest four stalls
Maiden at the start of the season
Finished in the first five in the Nell Gwyn Stakes or placed in the Pretty Polly Stakes
Ridden by Jamie Spencer

Negatives
More than two runs this season