Stats Guide: Wokingham Stakes

Last year’s race

Winner: Rohaan
Jockey: Ryan L Moore
Trainer: David Evans
Owner: Chris Kiely Racing Ltd & Mr J Tomkins
Age: 4
Weight: 9st 12lbs
Starting Price: 18/1
Season Form Figures: 878
Previous Best: 1st - Wokingham Stakes (Heritage Handicap), Ascot (June 2021)

By Paul Jones

Rohaan loves this stiff finish from racing off the pace (often loses ground at the stalls) and he became the fifth dual winner since the race’s inception in 1813, the first of which was back in 1882-83 called, er, Wokingham!

On the age front, the best advice is to stick to four and five-year-olds, with that age bracket having won 20 of the last 24 runnings between them. However, Rohaan became the first three-year-old to win since Bel Byou triumphed in 1987 two years ago, though in fairness, they only average a couple of runners per renewal, if that now. His task was aided by as many as nine non-runners on unsuitably heavy ground, and he only ran here as, being a gelding, he was ineligible for the Commonwealth Cup, despite having won two notable guides to that Group 1 contest. However, he sluiced through the pack under Ryan Moore to win even more cosily last year as a four-year-old.

Looking at the older horses, although many sprinters improve as they get older, it came as a shock to see Out Do win at 25/1 in 2017 at the age of eight, given that only the Jack Berry-trained seven-year-old Selhurstparkflyer (1997), who had also won the previous year’s Wokingham, had struck for horses aged over six from the 1900s onwards.

In-form horses have very much held sway, with 20 of the last 26 winners finishing in the first four last time out, and one of those that didn’t was Laddies Poker Two, who was a fourth winning favourite in 11 years in 2010 and was arriving here off a 610-day absence. It has also proven wise to look to lightly-raced sprint handicappers as far as the current season is concerned, with 15 of the last 21 winners running no more than twice earlier in the campaign.

No strong individual race guides, but it is worth noting three of the last ten winners had finished second at the Dante meeting at York on their previous start.

Roger Charlton’s record catches the eye, having supplied a winner, second and five other top-six finishes in recent seasons. Paul Cole has the best record of current-day trainers in terms of winners, saddling the victor in 1977, 1980 and 1987, and he is enjoying something of a resurgence joint-holding the licence with Oliver.

Unlike in some straight-course handicaps at Royal Ascot, a middle draw hasn’t been a negative in the Wokingham of late. Far from it, in fact, with the last five winners drawn between 10-16.

Of the last nine winners, the only pair to have won earlier in the season had done so here at Ascot.

Five winning favourites this century is a good return for such a competitive sprint handicap, but as the quality of horse required to run in the Wokingham is higher now than ever before, previous weight and official-rating stats are rendered pretty much irrelevant, as we are no longer dealing with like for like.

At a glance summary

Positives:
Four and five-year-olds
Ran no more than twice earlier in the season
Ran at the Dante meeting
The favourite
Trained by Roger & Harry Charlton or Paul Cole & Oliver Cole

Negatives:
Aged older than six
Unplaced last time out
Last-time-out winner (unless at Ascot)