Pietro Innocenzi on picking the winner of the Stewards' Cup

The Unibet Stewards' Cup is undoubtedly the daddy of handicap sprints. It is worth a whopping £46,000 more to the winner than the Wokingham, which is run over the same trip at Royal Ascot in June. But judged on the results of recent seasons, you should make that contest your first port of call when trying to unravel the conundrum.

The Wokingham has been a key race

That’s probably not surprising, but what may raise an eyebrow is the fact that seven of the last 11 winners of the Stewards’ Cup finished 0007360 at Ascot.

The main factor at play is that asking a horse to peak twice in the space of six weeks for these red-hot sprint handicaps is too much for all but the best (Petong managed to complete the double in 1984, but Lochsong had to make do with just the Stewards’ Cup in 1992 after finishing fourth in the Wokingham). Not incidentally, both went on to win Group 1s.

Favour in-form runners

Despite the fact a good run in the Wokingham is often undesirable, punters shouldn't fall into the trap of trying to find runners lurking on dangerous marks who may have had their handicap ratings protected – that’s the wrong way to approach this race.

Indeed, four of the last eight winners had already scored more than once that season, while 2013 victor Rex Imperator had gone up 6lb after two second places, and even last year’s topweight Gifted Master was scoring for the second time in the campaign.

Ratings

The recent trend has been for higher-rated winners, with seven of the last eight scorers rated 102 or above. Interestingly, the current first two in the betting, including ante-post gamble Justanotherbottle, are on marks in the 90s. He was second last year, but goes against the grain not only on ratings but also on recent form, having finished down the field on both starts this season.

The draw

Although a quick look at the draws of recent winners reveals a nice spread all the way from one to 26, only Intrinsic in 2014 crossed the line close to the stands’ rail – and even he raced up the centre of the track for the majority of the contest.

It’s obviously not a deal breaker to be drawn really high close to the stands’ rail, but it has to be an advantage to come from a middle-to-far-side stall, especially if there’s early pace drawn nearby.

A middle-to-far side draw has a slight advantage in the Stewards' CupCredit: Edward Whitaker

Pace

Only Magical Memory in 2015 has made up significant ground from behind to score in recent seasons and the fact he was beaten less than a length in a Group 1 on his next start suggests he had a huge class edge racing off a mark of 102.

The last two winners made most and, unless you think there is a future Group horse in the field, it should pay to concentrate on those runners who are used to taking prominent positions early in a race.

Read more Glorious Goodwood advice

Graeme Rodway's dos and don't for betting at Glorious Goodwood

bet365 join the Racing Post app. You can bet directly with bet365 on the Racing Post iOS app - to download the latest must-have free app click here