Stats Guide: King George V Stakes

Last year’s race

Secret State
Winner: Secret State
Jockey: William Buick
Trainer: Charlie Appleby
Owner: Godolphin
Age: 3 Weight: 9st 6lbs
Starting Price: 4/1
Season Form Figures: 211
Previous Best: 1st - Class 5 Novice, Nottingham (May 2022)

A handicap for three-year-olds over 1m4f, it’s not been a great race for the top weights with just three winners carrying over 9st since 2001 (including last year when they were responsible for 16 of the 19 runners in a much more compressed handicap than usual) and when Elite Army managed that he was carrying only 1lb above that threshold.

Aidan O’Brien saddled the 1-2-3 in 2019 which was a nice way for him to break his duck in the race. However, it is the Johnston stable that leads the way with six successes and they have also supplied six close-up placed runners, the latest being their subsequent Gold Cup winner, Subjectivist.

The Middleham-based outfit like to come at this race multiple-handed whereas Sir Michael Stoute has had far fewer runners so his record of four victories in the last 23 years including a 1-2 in 2004 so his record is arguably even more noteworthy. Godolphin owned the winner in 2014, supplied the 1-2 in 2015 and then last year’s winning joint-favourite, Secret State. Half of the last 14 winners could be found in the top three in the betting.

John and Thady Gosden also command respect as from the stable’s last 24 runners stretching back to 1993, they have notched up two winners, a second and four thirds. Roger Charlton’s contenders also deserve a second look as his Atty Persse in 2017 added to the victory of Source Of Light in 1992 and in between three of his other six runners made the frame.

With 18 of the last 30 winners failing to win as a two-year-old, we should be looking towards the later-developing types. Last year’s winner was unraced at two. The more lightly-raced the individual, the more interested we should be and also respect the value of a good run last time out as 32 of the last 34 winners either won or finished placed on their most recent start. Five of the last 17 winners had won a handicap at Sandown.

Eight of the last nine winners had struck earlier in the season (the outlier being in Covid year just two weeks into the turf season) but don’t be put off by maidens. The 66/1 winner, Cosmic Sun, 14 years ago was a maiden as was Heron Bay when scoring on his handicap debut in 2007 after three defeats in maidens whilst the 1999 winner, Elmutabaki, was beaten in four maidens before winning on his first start in a handicap.

At a glance summary

POSITIVES

A maiden at the start of the campaign
The more lightly-raced the better
First three in the betting
Won a Sandown handicap
Trained by Sir Michael Stoute or the Johnston, Gosden or Charlton stables
Owned by Godolphin

NEGATIVES

Carrying over 9st
Finished outside the first three last time out
Failed to win earlier in the season