SPEAKING of King George stats, the age stat looks strong: eight four-year-old winners in the last 10 years, two three-year-olds, no five-year-olds, no six-year-olds. That makes things easy at first glance, with five of the 10 runners in today’s race aged five or six.

Add to that the fact that there hasn’t been a King George winner aged older than four since Daylami won a relatively weak renewal in 1999, beating Nedawi and Fruits Of Love into second and third places respectively, with Derby winner Oath under-performing behind them in what turned out to be the last race of his career.

But dig a little deeper and, while the stat is still strong, it does not look as bleak for the older horses as it does at first glance.

There have only been 11 five-year-old runners and eight runners aged six or more in the last 10 years. Unsurprisingly, the race has been densely populated by four-year-olds, with 43 of them lining up since 2007.

That still means, however, that 80% of the winners in the last decade were four-year-olds, from 57% of the runners.

Small sample size of course, but, on this evidence, they are still over-achieving in terms of numerical representation. Add six places to the eight wins, and that’s 56% of the places for four-year-olds from 57% of the runners. They still hold their own.

Three-year-olds have won two renewals in the last decade, and have had four places, from just 13 runners.

That’s 20% of the winners and 24% of the placed horses from 17% of the runners, so the classic generation is slightly over-achieving in recent years.