Play a straight bat in the Hardwicke and side with Hukum
| Date | 16 June 2021 |
| Published date | 16 June 2021 |
| Publication title | Weekender |
Four-year-olds are the dominant age group with ten wins in 14 years, yet they need to be streetwise as of the last 20 winners, only Royal Oath and Forgotten Voice had raced fewer than eight times. This rules out the Lincoln winner Haqeeqy after only seven runs. Recent winners Field Of Dream, Belgian Bill, Prince Of Johanne and Zhui Feng were loaded with experience.
Such is the nature of this race trainers will target it and plan accordingly. Only two of the last ten winners had raced more than twice earlier in the season and both Field Of Dream and Afaak were having their first sightings in more than 260 days. Any contenders treating this as an afterthought are instantly opposed.
The most influential pointers are the Lincoln, the Victoria Cup and the Hambleton Stakes at York. It is crucial to have won a race of at least Class 3 stature and to have won at a mile, with Field Of Dreams and Dark Vision the only winners since 2001 without a distance victory.
An official mark of 105 is the highest defied in 40 years, which puts paid to those towards the very peak of the handicap, including Haqeeqy.
As for the draw? High numbers are preferred as when Belgian Bill won in 2013, he was the first drawn in single figures since 2001 and, when Portage triumphed from stall four in 2016, the ground was very testing.
Brunch, from stall 25, is a very solid option. The Michael Dods-trained four-year-old has only raced 11 times but he knows what these big-field handicaps are all about, and this season alone he has finished runner-up in the Lincoln and the Hambleton. He can become the 11th winner since 1976 to have come out of the latter race staged at York's Dante meeting.
No knocking North For the classiest race on day two, that's the Prince of Wales's Stakes, which has come on enormously since granted top-level status in 2000. This is now one of the most coveted 1m2f prizes in the world.
All eyes are on the eagerly awaited reappearance of Love, who carried all before her during an unbeaten three-yearold campaign that brought her glory in the 1,000 Guineas, the Oaks and the Yorkshire Oaks. Although Bosra Sham, Ouija Board and The Fugue are the only successful females since Stanerra in 1983, seven of the last 13 to have run finished 1313422.
With Wednesday in mind, the glaring omission on her CV is that she has yet to win at ten furlongs. This race always attracts contenders stepping up and down in distance, but the golden rule is to focus on 1m2f specialists.
Milers get outstayed, while the only recognised 1m4f horses to have triumphed in recent times were Ouija Board, Rewilding and Crystal Ocean.
Duke Of Marmalade and Poet's Word later won the King George, yet both were at their brilliant best at this trip.
Although Love has Classic honours at a mile, her best trip must be 1m4f and it's at that distance she is likely to be campaigned after Ascot.
Love's stablemate Armory also needs opposing when he has come up short in his seven previous races at the highest level.
Only six winners since 2000 lacked Group 1 honours, though offering some...
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