The four-year-old cavalry charge always attracts a huge field so luck in running is often needed.
However horses that can travel powerfully and posses stamina usually do well as has been proved in recent years by the likes of Celestial Halo, Katchit and Zaynar.
Those at the head of the market have proved the ones to be on in the last five years, with Penzance the biggest priced scorer during that time at 9-1 back in 2005.
In fact, 11 out of the last 16 winners have all started in the first four in the betting, and 13 out of the last 15 had all won last time out.
Alan King has saddled two winners in the last five runnings and once again has the favourite for this year’s contest in the strongly fancied Mille Chief.
He looks the best of the home brigade, but David Pipe’s Notus De La Tour was very impressive when scoring on his sole run in this country and could be massively overpriced at 25-1 if connections let him take his chance rather than run in the Fred Winter.
The Irish have not won the race since 2002 but look to have a very strong hand this year with the likes of Carlito Brigante, Secant Star and Alavain. Preference is for the former who has won his last three races in the style of a progressive type and looks to have all the right attributes to run a huge race.
