It's the big one before Cheltenham - but which horse has the perfect profile for the Imperial Cup based on recent trends?

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What a race we have for this year’s Imperial Cup. That becomes plainly obvious just by comparing this season’s field to that of the last ten years. There have been nine runnings in that time and only once (2022) has there been a full field of 22 like this for punters to enjoy.

The quantity is backed up by genuine quality and we can see that by comparing the average standard of recent winners with this year’s contenders. In handicaps, the best way to do this is by subtracting every winner’s BHA mark from their unadjusted pre-race Racing Post Rating. 

That tells us how well-handicapped each of the last nine winners were considered to be going into their races, and we can then compare this year’s contenders in the same way, subtracting every runner’s BHA mark from their unadjusted pre-race RPR to see who meets the standard.