There are so many options in the Stewards' Cup - but what does Keith Melrose want to see more of?

The most fun I have in my professional life during the Flat season comes from watching sprint handicaps for three-year-olds. Identifying strong form from watching replays prods at the same bit of your brain as discovering a great album before everyone else is talking about it. Three-year-old handicaps are by far the richest source of that joy.

The problem is there are too many of them. Three-year-olds have a good record in races like the Stewards' Cup, but they have so many options among their own age cohort that few try.

In the last ten years, there have been three three-year-old winners of the Stewards Cup – in other words, 30 per cent of the winners – from six per cent of the runners. The trend is just as pronounced in the next major sprint handicap, the Great St Wilfrid at Ripon, where they have had 20 per cent of winners from four per cent of runners.