Last year's race Winner: Little Big Bear Jockey: Ryan L Moore Trainer: Aidan P O'Brien Owner: D Smith, Mrs J Magnier, M Tabor, Westerberg Age: 2 Weight: 9st 5lbs Starting Price: 6/5 Season Form Figures: 21 Previous Best: 1st - Irish Stallion Farms EBF Maiden, Naas (May 2022) 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 as to why it is weak on trends. That said, last year’s winner Little Big Bear went on to become Champion Two-Year-Old. With up to 28 runners, the draw can be a significant factor, and the last four 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 Aidan O’Brien took it 12 months ago and Ballydoyle beat Godolphin into second in 2019, while the boys in blue saddled the 1-2 in 2017 and the three previous three winners emanated from the stables of Wesley Ward (who recorded his first Royal Ascot win in this race in 2009), Aidan O’Brien and John Gosden! Archie Watson helped redress the balance in 2018 with the success of Soldier’s Call, and Eve Johnson-Houghton’s Brocklesby winner Chipotle recorded a mild surprise in 2021. In between we also had a Royal winner when Tactical justified favouritism for Andrew Balding. The Irish don’t tend to attack this race with great force and Aidan O’Brien’s Washington D C was giving them their first win since 1980 in 2015. However, he did also land the 2019 and 2022 runnings. Very surprisingly, however, given his record with two-year-olds, this is a race that eluded Richard Hannon Snr during his long and distinguished career, so his son will be hoping to improve on that record and has had two placed runners thus far. 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, while Jamie Osborne has won the race with Irony (2001) and Drawnfromthepast (2007). Nine of the last 17 winners started at double-figure odds; 100/1, 33/1, 22/1, 20/1 (x 2), 16/1 (x 2), 14/1 and 12/1, so it has also been the hardest two-year-old race of the meeting to try and 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 seven runners-up were also sent off at 100/1. Three winners since 1995 were debutants. Fillies had a belting record in the mid-to-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 here, as they had won twice in the not-too-distant past before Southern Hills and Tactical got off the mark at the third and second time of asking, respectively, in two of the last three runnings. At a glance summary Positives:  Trained by Aidan O’Brien, Wesley Ward, Jack Channon or Jamie Osborne Drawn very high or very low Do not be put off by big prices or overlook racecourse debutants Negatives: Trained by Richard Hannon